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i 


LETTER 


ADDRESSED       TO      THE 


ABBE      RAYNAL, 


BY    THE 


AUTHOR  OF  COMMON    SENSE, 


LETTER 

ADDRESSED      TO      THE 

ABBE     RAYNAL* 

ON      THE 

AFFAIRS  of  North- America* 

IN     WHICH 

The  Miftakes  in  the  Abbe's  Account 

OF      THE 

REVOLUTION    OF    AMERICA 

ARE  CORRECTED  AND  CLEARED  UP. 


BY    THOMAS    PAINE,    M.    A. 

of  theUniverfity  ofPennfylvania,  and  Author  of  the  Pamphlet 
and  other  Publications,  entitled,  "COMMON  SENSE." 


PHILADELPHIA: 

^Printed  by  MELCHIOR  STEINER,  in  Race-ftreet, 
near  Third-  ftreet. 

Sold  by  ROBERT  AIT  KEN,  Bookfeller,  in  Market- 
flreet,  three  Doors  above  the  Coffee-Houfe. 


M,DCC,LXXXII. 


St. 


INTRODUCTION. 


AL  O  N  D  O  N  tranflation  of  an  original  work  in 
French,  by  the  Abbe  Raynal,  which  treats  of 
the  Revolution  of  North-America,  having  been 
reprinted  in  Philadelphia  and  other  parts  of  the  continent, 
and  as  the  diftance  at  which  the  Abbe  is  placed  from  the 
American  theatre  of  war  and  politics,  has  occafioned  him 
to  miftake  feveral  fa<5fo,  or,  mifconceive  the  caufes  or 
principles  by  which  they  were  produced  ;  the  following 
tract,  therefore,  is  publifhed  with  a  view  to  rectify  them, 
and  prevent  even  accidental  errors  intermixing  with  hifto- 
ry,  under  the  fandion  of  time  and  filence. 

THE  editor  of  the  Londofi  edition  has  entitled  it,  "7 be 
Revolution  of  America  ^  by  the  ABBE  RAYNAL,"  and  the 
American  printers  have  followed  the  example.  But  I 
have  underftood,  and  I  believe  my  information  juft,  that 
the  piece,  which  is  more  properly  reflections  on  the  re- 
volution, was  unfairly  purloined  from  the  printer  which 
tl  Abbe  employed,  or  from  the  manufcript  copy,  and  is 
only  part  of  a  larger  work  then  in  the  prefs,  or  preparing 

£'  i-k  Per(011  Wh°  Procured  it:  appears  to  have  been, 
an  knghihman,  and  though  in  an  advertifement  prefixt 
to  the  London  edition,  he  has  endeavoured  to  glofs  over 
the  embezzlement  with  profefiions  o£  patriotifm,  and  to 

A  foften 


[    K    J 

foften  it  with  high  encomiums  on  the  author,  yet  the 
action,  in  any  view,  in  which  it  can  be  placed,  is  illi- 
beral and  unpardonable. 

•"  IN  thecourfe  of  his  travels,"  fays  he,  "  the  tranflator 

"  happily  fucceeded  in  obtaining  a  copy  of  this  exquifite 

6C  little  piece,  which  has  not  yet  made  its  appearance  from 

<c  any  prefs.    He  publifhes  a  French  edition,  in  favour  of 

<c  thofc  who  will  feel  its  eloquent  reafoning  more  forcibly 

"  in  its  native  language,  at  the  fame  time  with  the  fol- 

<c  lowing  tranflation  of  it;  in  which  he  has  been  defirous, 

"  perhaps  in  vain,    that  all  the  warmth,    the  grace,   the 

<e  ftrength,  the  dignity  of  the  original,  fhould  not  be  loft. 

"  And  he  flatters  himfelf,  that  the  indulgence  of  the  illu- 

"  ftrious  hiftorian  will  not  be  wanting  to  a  man,  who, 

"  of  his  own  motion,  has  taken  the  liberty  to  give  this 

<e  compofition  to  the  public,  only  from  a  ftrong  perfua- 

<c  fion,  that  its  momentous  argument  will  be  ufefuJ,  in 

<c  a  critical  conjuncture,  to  that  country  which  he  loves 

"  with  an  ardour,    that  can  be  exceeded  only  by  the 

"  nobler  flame,  which  burns  in  the  bofom  of  the  philan- 

"  thropic  author,  for  the  freedom  and  happinefs  of  all 

<c  the  countries  upon  earth." 

THIS  plaufibility  of  fetting  off  a  difhonor'able  action, 
may  pafs  for  patriotifm  and  found  principles  with  thofe 
who  do  not  enter  into  its  demerits,  and  whofe  intereft  is 
not  injured  nor  their  happinefs  affected  thereby.  But  it 
is  more  than  probable,  notwithftanding  the  declarations 
'it  contains,  that  the  copy  was  obtained  for  the  fake  of 
profiting  by  the  fale  of  a  new  and  popular  work,  and  that 
the  profeffions  are  but  a  garb  to  the  fraud. 

IT  may  with  propriety  be  remarked,  that  in  all  countries 
where  literature  is  protected,  and  it  never  can  flourifli 
where  it  is  not,  the  works  of  an  author  are  his  legal  pro- 
perty ;  and  to  treat  letters  in  any  other  light  than  this,  is 
to  banifh  them  from  the  country  or  iirangle  them  in  the 

birth. The   embezzlement  from  the   Abbe    Raynal, 

was,  it  is  true,  committed  by  one  country  upon  another, 
and  therefore  (hows  no  defecl:  in  the  laws  of  either.  But 
it  is  neverthelefs  a  breach  of  civil  manners  and  literary 
juftice;  neither  can  it  be  any  apology 2  that  becaufe  the 

countries 


countries  are  at  war,  literature  {hall  be  entitled  to  depre- 
dation. * 

BUT  the  foreftalling  the  Abbe's  publication  by  London 
editions,  both  in  French  and  Englifh,  and  thereby  hot 
only  defrauding  him  and  throwing  an  expenfive  publica- 
tion on  his  hands  by  anticipating  the  fale,  are  only  the 
fmaller  injuries  which  fuch  condu6t  may  occafion.  A 
man's  opinions,  whether  written  or  in  thought,  are  his 
own  until  he  pleafes  to  publifh  them  himfelf  j  and  it  is 
adding  cruelty  to  injuftice,  to  make  him  the  author  of 
what  future  reflection,'  or  better  information,  might  occa- 
fion him  to  fupprefs  or  amend.  There  are  declarations  and 
fentiments  in  the  Abbe's  piece,  which,  for  my  own  part, 
I  did  not  expect  to  find,  and  fuch  as  himfelf,  on  a  re- 
vifal,  might  have  feen  occafion  to  change ;  but  the  anti- 
cipated piracy  effectually  prevented  him  the  opportunity, 
and  precipitated  him  into  difficulties,  which,  had  it  not 
been  for  fuch  ungenerous  fraud,  might  hot  have  hap- 
pened. 

/ 

THIS  mode  of  making  an  author  appearbefore  his  time, 
will  appear  ftill  more  ungenerous,  when  we  confider  how 
exceedingly  few  men  there  are  in  any  country,  who  can 
at  once,  and  without  the  aid  of  reflection  and  revifal, 
combine  warm  paffions  with  a  cool  temper,  and  the  full 
expanfion  of  imagination  with  the  natural  and  neceflary 
gravity  of  judgment,  fo  as  to  be  rightly  balanced  within 
themfelves,  and  to  make  a  reader  feel,  fancy,  and  under- 
ftand  juftly  at  the  fame  time.  To  call  three  powers  of 
A  2  the 


*  'The  ft  ate  of  literature  in  America  muft  one  day  become  a 
fubjeft  of  legijlative  confederation.  Hitherto  it  hath  been  a  dif- 
interejled  volunteer  in  the  fervice  of  the  revolution,  and  no  man 
thought  of  profits :  but  when  peace  Jhall  give  time  and  oppor- 
tunity for  ftudy ,  the  country  will  deprive  itfelfofthe  honor  and 
fervice  of  letters  and  the  improvement  offcience,  unlefs  fufficient 
laws  are  made  to  prevent  depredations  on  literary  property. — 
It  is  well  worth  remarking,  that  RuJ/ia,  who  but  a  few  years 
ago,  was  jcarcely  known  in  Europe,  owes  a  large  foa^e  of  her 
prefent  greatnefs  to  the  'clofe  attention  Jhe  has  paid,  and  the  wife 
encouragement  Jhe  has  given,  to  every  branch  of  fcience  and 
learning  ;  and  we  have  almojl  the  fame  inftance  in  France ,  in 
the  reign  of  Lewis  the 


I  iv   3 

the  mind  into  a£ion  at  once,  in  a  manner  that  neither 
{hall  interrupt,  and  that  each  fhall  aid  and  vigorate  the 
other,  is  a  talent  very  rarely  pollefled. 

IT  often  happens  that  the  weight  of  an  argument  is  loft 
by  the  wit  of  letting  it  off;  or  the  judgment  difordered 
by  an  intemperate  irritation  of  the  pafiions  :  yet  a  certain 
degree  of  animation  muft  be  felt  by  the  writer,  and  raifed 
in  the  reader,  in  order  to  intereft  the  attention  ;  and  a  fuf- 
ficient  fcope  given  to  the  imagination,  to  enable  it  to  cre- 
ate in  the  mind  a  fight  of  the  perfons,  characters  and  cir- 
cumftances  of  the  fubjecl: ;  for  without  thefe  the  judgment 
will  feel  little  or  no  excitement  to  office,  and  its  determi- 
nations will  be  cold,  (luggifh,  and  imperfect.  But  if  either 
or  both  of  the  two  former  are  raifed  too  high,  or  heated 
to  much,  the  judgment  will  bejoftled  from  its  feat,  and 
the  whole  master,  however  important  in  itfelf,  will  di- 
minifh  into  a  pantomime  of  the  mind,  in  which  we  create 
images  that  promote  no  other  purpofe  than  amufement. 

THE  Abbe's  writings  bear  evident  marks  of  that  ex- 
tenfion  and  rapidnefs  of  thinking  and  quicknefs  of  fenfa- 
tion,  which  of  all  others  require  revifal,  and  the  more 
particularly  fo,  when  applied  to  the  living  characters  of 
nations  or  individuals  in  a  ftate  of  war.  The  leafi  mif- 
information  or  milconception  leads  to  fome  wrong  con- 
el  ufion,  and  an  error  believed  becomes  the  progenitor  of 
others. — And  as  the  Abbe  has  fuffered  fome  inconvenien- 
cies  in  France  by  miftating  certain  circumftances  of  the 
war,  and  the  characters  of  the  parties  therein,  it  becomes 
fome  apology  for  him  that  thofe  errors  were  precipitated 
into  the  world  by  the  avarice  of  an  ungenerous  enemy. 


LETTER 


LETTER 


ADDRESSED      TO      THE 


ABBE       RAYNAL 


ON      THE      AFFAIRS      OF 


NORTH-AMERICA, 


TO  an  author  x>f  fuch  diftinguiflied  reputation  as 
the  Abbe  Raynal,  it  might  very  well  become  me 
to  apologize  for  the  prefent  undertaking ;  but  as  to  be  right 
is  the  firft  wifli  of  philofophy,  and  the  firft  principle  of 
hiftory,  he  will,  I  prefume,  accept  from  me  a  declaration 
of  my  motives,  which  are  thofe  of  doing  juftice,  in  pre- 
ference to  any  complimental  apology,  L  might  otherwife 
make. ----The  Abbe,  in  the  courfe  of  his  work,  has,  in. 
fome  inftances,  extolled  without  a  reafon,  and  wounded 
without  a  caufe.  He  has  given  fame  where  it  was  not 
deferved,  and  withheld  it  where  it  was  juftly  due ;  and 
appears  to  be  fo  frequently  in  and  out  of  temper  with 

his 


, 

his  fubje&s  and  parties,  that  few  or  none  of  them  are 
decifively  and  uniformly  marked. 

IT  is  yet  too  foon  to  write  thehiftory  of  the  revolution, 
and  whoever  attempts  it  precipitately,  will  unavoidably 
miftake  characters  and  circumftances,  and  involve  himfelf 
in  error  and  difficulty.  Things  like  nien  are  feldom  under- 
ftood  rightly  at  firft  fight.  But  the  Abbe  is  wrong  even  in 
the  foundation  of  his  work ;  that  is,  he  has  mifconceived  and 
miftated  the  caufes  which  produced  the  rupture  between 
England  and  her  then  colonies,  and  which  led  on,  ftep 
byy  ftep,  unftudied  and  uncontrived  on  the  part  of  Ameri- 
ca, to  a  revolution,  which  has  engaged  the  attention,  and 
affe&ed  the  intereft,  of  Europe. 

To  prove  this,  I  fliall  bring  forward  a  pafTage,  which, 
though  placed  towards  the  latter  part  of  the  Abbe's  work, 
is  more  intimately  connected  with  the  beginning;  and  in 
which,  fpeaking  of  the  original  caufe  of  the  difpute,  he 
declares  himfelf  in  the  following  manner — 

"  NONE,"  fays  he,  "  of  thofe  energetic  caufes,  which 
"  have  produced  fo  many  revolutions  upon  the  globe, 
"  exifted  in  North-America.  Neither  religion  nor  laws 
"  had  there  been  outraged.  The  blood  of  martyrs  or 
"  patriots  had  not  there  dreamed  from  fcaffblds.  Morals 
"  had  not  there  been  infulted.  Manners,  cuftoms,  ha- 
"  bits,  no  object  dear  to  nations,  had  there  been  the  fport 
<c  of  ridicule.  Arbitrary  power  had  not  there  torn  any 
<c  inhabitant  from  the  arms  of  his  family  and  his  friends, 
"  to  drag  him  to  a  dreary  dungeon.  Public  order  had 
"  not  been  there  inverted.  The  principles  of  adminiftra- 
"  tion  had  not  been  changed  there  j  and  the  maxims  of 

"  govern- 


[     7    ] 

"  government  had  there  always  remained  the  fame.  The 
"  whole  queftion  was  reduced  to  the  knowing  whether 
"  the  mother  country  had,  or  had  not  a  right  to  lay,  di- 
"  re&ly  or  indirectly,  a  flight  tax  upon  the  colonies." 

ON  this  extraordinary  paflage,  it  may  not  be  improper, 
in  general  terms,  to  remark,  that  none  can  feel  like  thofe 
who  fuffer  j  and  that  for  a  man  to  be  a  competent  judge 
of  the  provocative,  or  as  the  Abbe  ftiles  them,  the  ener- 
getic caufes  of  the  revolution,  he  muft  have  refided  in 
America. 

THE  Abbe  in  faying  that  the  feveral  particulars  he  has 
enumerated,  did  not  exift  in  America,  and  neglecting  to 
point  out  the  particular  period,  in  which  he  means  they 
did  not  exift,  reduces  thereby  his  declaration  to  a  nullity, 
by  taking  away  all  meaning  from  the  paflage. 

THEY  did  not  exiffe  in  1763,  and  they  all  exifted  be- 
fore 1776;  confequently  as  there  was  a  time  when  they 
did  not,  and  another,  when  they  did  exift,  the  time  when 
conftitutes  the  eflence  of  the  fa&,  and  not  to  give  it,  is 
to  withhold  the  only  evidence,  which  proves  the  declara- 
tion right  or  wrong,  and  on  which  it  muft  (land  or  fall. 
But  the  declaration,  as  it  now  appears,  unaccompanied 
by  time,  has  an  effect  in  holding  out  to  the  world,  that 
there  was  no  real  caufe  for  the  revolution,  becaufe  it 
denies  the  exiftenceof  all  thofe  caufes,  which  are  fuppofed 

to  be  juftifiable  and  which  the  Abbe  ftiles  energetic'. 

*  \ 

.  I  confefs  myfelf  exceedingly  at  a  lofs  to  find  out  the 
time  to  which  the  Abbe  alludes ;  becaufe,  in  another  part 
of  the  work,  in  fpeaking  of  the  ftamp  aft,  which  was 

pafled 


[     8     ] 

pafled  in  1764,  he  ftiles  it  "  An  ufurpation  of  the  Ame- 
ricans moft  precious  and  facred  rights."  Confequently  he 
here  admits  the  moft  energetic  of  all  caufes,  that  is,  an 
ufurpation  of  their  moft  precious  and  facred  rights^  to  have 
exifted  in  America  twelve  years  before  the  declaration  of 
independence,  and  ten  years  before  the  breaking  out  of 
hoftilities.— The  time,  therefore,  in  which  the  paragraph 
is  true,  muft  be  antecedent  to  the  ftamp  aft,  but  as  at 
that  time  there  was  no  revolution  nor  any  idea  of  one,  it 
confequently  applies  without  a  meaning ;  and  as  it  can- 
not, on  the  Abbe's  own  principle,  be  applied  to  any  time 
after  the  ftamp  aft,  it  is  therefore  a  wandering  folitary 
paragraph  connected  with  nothing  and  at  variance  with 
every  thing. 

THE  ftamp  aft,  it  is  true,  was  repealed  in  two  years 
after  it  was  pafled,  but  it  was  immediately  followed  by 
one  of  infinitely  more  mifchievous  magnitude,  I  mean  the 
declaratory  aft,  which  aflerted  the  right,  as  it  was  ftiled, 
of  the  Britifh  Parliament,  "to  bind  America  in  all  cafes 
whatfoever" 

IF  then  the  ftamp  aft  was  an  ufurpation  of  the  Ameri- 
cans moft  precious  and  facred  rights,  the  declaratory  aft 
left  them  no  right  at  all ;  and  contained  the  full  grown 
feeds  of  the  moft  defpotic  government  ever  exercifed  in 
the  world.  It  placed  America  not  only  in  the  loweft, 
but  in  the  bafeft  ftate  of  vaflalage ;  becaufe  it  demanded 
an  unconditional  fubmiflion  in  every  thing,  or  as  the  aft 
exprefles  it,  in  all  cafes  whatfoever :  And  what  renders  this 
aft  the  more  offenfive,  is,  that  it  appears  to  have  been 
pafled  as  an  aft  of  mercy ;  truly  then  may  it  be  faid,  that 
the  tender  mercies  of  the  wicked  are  cruel. 

ALL 


[     9     1 

ALL  the  original  charters  from  the  Crown  of  England, 
under  the  faith  of  which,  the  adventurers  from  the  old 
world  fettled  in  the  new,  were  by  this  aft  difplaced 
from  their  foundations  j  becaufe,  contrary  to  the  nature 
of  them,  which  was  that  of  a  compact,  they  were  now 
made  fubjecl  to  repeal  or  alteration  at  the  meer  will  of 
one  party  only.  The  whole  condition  of  America  was 
thus  put  into  the  hands  of  the  Parliament  or  the'Miniftry, 
without  leaving  to  her  the  leaft  right  in  any  cafe  what- 
Ibever. 

THERE  is  no  defpotifm  to  which  this  iniquitous  law 
did  not  extend ;  and  tho'  it  might  have  been  convenient 
in  the  execution  of  it,  to  have  confulted  manners  and 
habits,  the  principle  of  the  act  made  all  tyranny  legal. 
It  ftopt  nowhere.  It  went  to  every  thing.  It  took  in 
with  it  the  whole  life  of  a  man,  or,  if  I  may  fo  exprefs  it, 
an  eternity  of  circumftances.  It  is  the  nature  of  law  to 
require  obedience,  but  this  demanded  fervitude ;  and  the 
condition  of  an  American,  under  the  operation  of  it,  was 
not  that  of  a  fubjecl,  but  a  vafTal.  Tyranny  has  often 
been  eftablifhed  without  law  and  fometimes  again/I  it,  but 
the  hiftory  of  mankind  docs  not  produce  another  inftance, 
in  which  it  has  been  eftablifhed  by  law.  It  is  an  audaci- 
ous outrage  upon  civil  government,  and  cannot  be  too 
much  expofed,  in  order  to  be  fufficiently  detefted. 

NEITHER  could  it  be  faid  after  this,  that  the  legiflature 
of  that  country  any  longer  made  laws  for  this,  but  that 
it  gave  out  commands;  for  wherein  differed  an  acl:  of 
Parliament  conftru&ed  on  this  principle,  and  operating  in 
this  manner,  over  an  unreprefented  people,  from  the  or- 
ders of  a  military  eftablifhment. 

B  THE 


THE  Parliament  of  England,  with  refpedl  to  America, 
was  not  feptennial  but  perpetual.  It  appeared  to  the  latter 
a  body  always  in  being.  Its  eledlion  or  its  expiration 
were  to  her  the  fame  as  if  its  members  fucceeded  by  inheri- 
tance, or  went  out  by  death,  or  lived  for  ever,  or  were  ap- 
pointed to  it  as  a  matter  of  office.  Therefore,  for  the  people 
of  England  to  have  any  juft  conception  of  the  mind  of 
America,  refpecYmg  this  extraordinary  acl,  they  muft 
fuppofe  all  election  and  expiration  in  that  country  to  ceafe 
for  ever,  and  the  prefent  Parliament,  its  heirs,  &c.  to  be 
perpetual ;  in  this  cafe,  I  afk,  what  would  the  moft  cla- 
morous of  them  think,  were  an  acl  to  be  pafled,  declar- 
ing the  right  of  fuch  a  Parliament  to  bind  them  in  all 
cafes  whatfoever  ?  For  this  word  whatfoever  would  go  as 
effectually  to  their  Magna  Charta,  Bill  of  Rights,  Trial  by 
Juries,  &c.  as  it  went  to  the  charters  and  forms  of  go- 
vernment in  America. 

4 

I  am  perfuaded,  that  the  Gentleman  to  whom  I  addrefs 
thefs  remarks,  will  not,  after  the  palling  this  acl:,  fay, 
"  That  the  principles  of  administration  had  not  been 
"  changed  in  America,  and  that  the  maxims  of  govern- 
"  ment  had  there  been  always  the  fame"  For  here  is,  in 
principle,  a  total  overthrow  of  the  whole ;  and  not 
a  fubverfion  only,  but  an  annihilation  of  the  foundation 
of  liberty,  and  abfolute  domination  eftablifhed  in  its 
Head. 

THE  Abbe  likewife  ftates  the  cafe  exceedingly  wrong 
and  injurioufly,  when  he  fays,-  "  that  the  whole  queftion 
"  was  reduced  to  the  knowing  whether  the  mother  coun- 
"  try  had,  or  had  not,  a  right  to  lay,  diredlly  or  indi- 
a  flight  tax  upon  the  colonies."— This  was 

not 


[    «    3 

not  the  whole  of  the  queftion  ;  neither  was  the  quantity  of 
the  tax  the  object,  either  to  the  Miniftry  or  to  the  Ame- 
ricans. It  was  the  principle,  of  which  the  tax  made  but 
a  part,  and  the  quantity  ftill  lefs,  that  formed  the  ground 
on  which  America  oppofed. 

THE  tax  on  tea,  which  is  the  tax  here  alluded  to,  was  nei- 
ther more  or  lefs  than  an  experiment  to  eftablifh  the  prac- 
tice of  the  declaratory  law  upon  ;  modelled  into  the  more 
famionable  phrafe  of  the  univerfal  fupremacy  of  Parliament. 
For  until  this  time  the  declaratory  law  had  lain  dormant, 
and  the  framers  of  it  had  contented  themfelves  with  barely 
declaring  an  opinion. 

THEREFORE  the  whole  queftion  with  America,  in  the 
opening  of  the  difpute,  was,  fhall  we  be  bound  in  all 
cafes  whatfoever  by  the  Britifh  parliament,  or  fhall  we 
not  ?  For  fubmiflion  to  the  tea  or  tax  aft  implied  an  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  declaratory  a£t,  or,  in  other  words, 
of  the  univerfal  fupremicy  of  Parliament,  which,  as  they 
never  intended  to  do,  it  was  neceflary  they  fhould  oppofe 
it,  in  its  firft  ftage  of  execution. 

IT  is  probable,  the  Abbe  has  been  led  into  this  miftake 
by  perufing  detached  pieces  in  fome  of  the  American  News- 
Papers  ;  for  in  a  cafe,  where  all  were  interefted,  every  one 
had  a  right  to  give  his  opinion ;  and  there  were  many, 
who  with  the  bed  intentions,  did  not  chufe  the  beft,  nor 
indeed  the  true  ground,  to  defend  their  caufe  upon.  They 
felt  themfelves  right  by  a  general  impulfe,  without  being 
able  to  feparate,  analyze,  and  arrange  the  parts. 

I  am  fomewhat  unwilling  to  examine  too  minutely  into 
B  2  the 


[  «  J 

the  whole  of  this  extraordinary  pafTage  of  the  Abbe,  left 
I  (hould  appear  to  treat  it  with  fcverity ;  etherwife  I  could 
fhow  that  not  a  finglc  declaration  is  juftly  founded  :  For 
inftance,  the  reviving  an  oblblcte  ad  of  the  reign  of  Hen- 
ry the  eighth,  and  fitting  it  to  the  Americans,  by  authority 
of  which  they  were  to  be  feized  arid  brought  from  America 
to  England,  and  there  imprifoned  and  tried  for  any  fup- 
pofed  offences,  was,  in  the  woi  ft  fenfe  of  the  words,  to  tear 
them,  by  the  arbitrary  power  of  Parliament^  from  the  arms  of 
their  families  and  fr  tends ,  and  drag  them  not  only  to  dreary 
but  diftant  dungeons.  Yet  this  acl:  was  contrived  fome 
years  before  the  breaking  out  of  hoftilities.  And  again, 
though  the  blood  of  martyrs  and  patriots  had  not  ftreamed 
on  the  fcaffolds,  it  ftreamed  in  the  ftreets,  in  the  maffacre 
of  the  inhabitants  of  Bofton,  by  the  Britifh  foldiery  in 
the  year  1770. 

HAD  the  Abbe  faid  that  the  caufes  which  produced  the 
revolution  in  America  were  originally  different  from  thofe 
which  produced  revolutions  in  other  parts  of  the  globe, 
he  had  been  right.  Here  the  value  and  quality  of  liberty, 
the  nature  of  government,  and  the  dignity  of  man,  were 
known  and  underftood,  and  the  attachment  of  the  Ame- 
ricans to  thefe  principles  produced  the  revolution  as  a 
natural  and  almoft  unavoidable  confequence.  They  had 
no  particular  family  to  fet  up  or  pull  down.  Nothing  of 
perfonality  was  incorporated  with  their  caufe.  They 
ftarted  even-handed  with  each  other,  and  went  no  fafter 
into  the  feveral  ftages  of  it,  than  they  were  driven  by  the 
unrelenting  and  imperious  conduct  of  Britain.  Nay,  in 
the  laft  acl,  the  declaration  of  independence,  they  had 
nearly  been  too  late  ;  for  had  it  not  been  declared  at  the 
cxa£l  time  it  was,  I  fee  no  period  in  their  affairs  fmce,  in 

which 


I  '3  ] 

which  it  could, have  been  declared  with  the  fame  effect, 
and  probably  not  at  all. 

BUT  the  object  being  formed  before  the  reverfe  of  for- 
tune took  place,  that  is,  before  the  operations  or"  the 
gloomy  campaign  of  1776,  their  honor,  their  intereft,  their 
every  thing  called  loudly  on  them  to  maintain  it;  and  that 
glow  of  thought  and  energy  of  heart,  which  even  a  diftant 
profpect  of  independence  infpires,  gave  confidence  to  their 
hopes  and  resolution  to  their  conduct,  which  a  ftate  of  de- 
pendence could  never  have  reached.  They  looked  forward  to 
happier  days  and  fcenes  of  reft,  and  qualified  the  hardfhips 
of  the  campaign  by  contemplating  the  eftablifhment  of 
their  new  born  fyftem. 

IF  on  the  other  hand  we  take  a  review  of  what  part 
Britain  has  acted,  we  ihall  find  every  thing  which  ought 
to  make  a  nation  blufh.  The  moft  vulgar  abufe,  accom- 
panied by  that  fpecies  of  haughtinefs,  which  diftinguifhes 
the  hero  of  a  mob  from  the  character  of  a  gentleman  ;  it 
was  equally  as  much  from  her  manners  as  from  her  in- 
juftice  that  {he  loft  the  colonies.  By  the  latter  (he  provoked 
their  principles  ,  by  the  former  fhe  wore  out  their  temper; 
and  it  ought  to  be  held  out  as  an  example  to  the  world, 
to  fhow,  how  neceflary  it  is  to  conduct  the  bufinefs  of 
government  with  civility.  In  fliort,  other  revolutions 
may  have  originated  in  caprice  or  generated  in  ambition  ; 
but  here,  the  moft  unoffending  humility  was  tortured  into 
rage,  and  the  infancy  of  exiftence  made  to  weep. 

A  union  fo  extenfive,  continued  and  determined,  fuffer- 
ing  with  patience  and  never  in  defpair,  could  not  have 
been  produced  by  common  caufes.  It  muft  be  fomething 

capable 


[     '4     ] 

capable  of  reaching  the  whole  foul  of  man  and  arming  it 
with  perpetual  energy.  In  vain  is  it  to  look  for  prece- 
dents among  the  revolutions  of  former  ages,  to  find  out, 
by  comparifon,  the  caufes  of  this.  The  fpring,  the  pro- 
grefs,  the  object,  the  confequences,  nay,  the  men,  their 
habits  of  thinking,  and  all  the  circumftances  of  the  coun- 
try are  different.  Thofe  of  other  nations  are,  in  general, 
little  more  than  the  hiftory  of  their  quarrels.  They  are 
marked  by  no  important  character  in  the  annals  of  events; 
mixt  in  the  mafs  of  general  matters  they  occupy  but  a 
common  page  ;  and  while  the  chief  of  the  fuccefsful  par- 
tizans  ftept  into  power,  the  plundered  multitude  fat  down 
and  forrowed.  Few,  very  few  of  them  are  accompanied 
with  reformation,  either  in  government  or  manners; 
many  of  them  with  the  moft  confummate  profligacy. 
Triumph  on  the  one  fide  and  mifery  on  the  other  were 
the  only  events.  Pains,  punifhments,  torture,  and  death 
were  made  the  bufmefs  of  mankind,  until  companion,  the 
faireft  aflbciate  of  the  heart,  was  driven  from  its  place,  and 
the  eye,  accuftomed  to  continual  cruelty,  could  behold  it 
/  without  offence. 

BUT  as  the  principles  of  the  prefent  revolution  differed 
from  thofe  which  preceded  it,  fo  likewife  has  the  conduct 
of  America  both  in  government  and  war.  Neither  the 
foul  finger  of  difgrace  nor  the  bloody  hand  of  vengeance 
has  hitherto  put  a  blot  upon  her  fame.  Her  victories  have 
received  luftre  from  a  greatnefs  of  lenity ;  and  her  laws 
been  permitted  to  flumber,  where  they  might  juftly  have 
awakened  to  puni{h.  War,  fo  much  the  trade  of  the 
world,  has  here  been  only  the  bufmefs  of  neceffity;  and 
when  the  neceflity  {hall  ceafe,  her  very  enemies  muft  con- 

fefs, 


[     '5    3 

fefs,  that  as  fhe  drew  the  fword  in  her juft  defence,  fhe 
ufed  it  without  cruelty  and  fheathed  it  without  revenge, 

As  it  is  no"t  my  defign  to  extend  thefe  remarks  to  a  hi- 
ftory,  I  (hall  now  take  my  leave  of  this  paflage  of  the 
Abbe,  with  an  obfervation,  which  until  fomething  un- 
folds itfelf  to  convince  me  otherwife,  I  cannot  avoid  be- 
lieving to  be  true  j— which  is,  that  it  was  the  fixt  deter- 
mination of  the  Britifh  cabinet  to  quarrel  with  America 
at  all  events. 

THEY  (the  members  who  compofe  the  cabinet)  had 
no  doubt  of  fuccefs,  if  they  could  once  bring  it  to  the 
ifTue  of  a  battle;  and  they  expecled  from  a  conqueft, 
what  they  could  neither  propofe  with  decency,  nor  hope 
for  by  negociation.  The  charters  and  conftitutions  of 
the  colonies  were  become  to  them  matters  of  offence, 
and  their  rapid  progrefs  in  property  and  population  were 
difguftingly  beheld  as  the  growing  and  natural  means  of 
independence.  They  faw  no  way  to  retain  them  long 
but  by  reducing  them  in  time.  A  conqueft  would  at  once 
have  made  them  both  lords  and  landlords;  and  put  them 
in  pofleiTion  both  of  the  revenue  and  the  rental.  The 
whole  trouble  of  government  would  have  ceafed  in  a  vic- 
tory, and  a  final  end  been  put  to  remonftrance  and  debate. 
The  experience  of  the  ftamp  a£t  had  taught  them  how  to 
quarrel  with  the  advantages  of  cover  and  convenience, 
and  they  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  renew  the  fcene,  and 
put  contention  into  motion.  They  hoped  for  a  rebellion, 
and  they  made  one.  They  expected  a  declaration  of  in- 
cjependence,  and  they  were  not  difappointed.  But  after 
this,  they  looked  for  victory,  and  they  obtained  a  defeat. 


IF 


[     i6    ] 

IF  this  be  taken  as  the  generating  caufe  of  the  contell, 
then  is  every  part  of  the  conduct  of  the  Britifh  Miniftry 
confiftent  from  the  commencement  of  the  difpute,  until 
the  figning  the  treaty  of  Paris,  after  which,  conqueft  be- 
coming doubtful,  they  retreated  to  negociation,  and  were 
again  defeated. 

THO'  the  Abbe  poflcfTes  and  difplays  great  powers  of 
genius,  and  is  a  mafter  of  ftile  and  language,  he  feems 
not  to  pay  equal  attention  to  the  office  of  an  hiftorian. 
His  facts  are  coldly  and  carelefsly  dated.  They  neither 
inform  the  reader  nor  intereft  him.  Many  of  them  are 
erroneous,  and  moft  of  them  defective  and  obfcure.  It 
is  undoubtedly  both  an  ornament  and  a  ufeful  addition  to 
hiftory  to  accompany  it  with  maxims  and  reflections. 
They  afford  likewife  an  agreeable  change  to  the  ftile  and 
a  more  diversified  manner  of  expreffion  ;  but  it  is  abfo- 
lutely  neceflary  that  the  root  from  whence  they  fpring, 
or  the  foundations  on  which  they  are  raifed,  fhould  be 
well  attended  to,  which  in  this  work  they  are  not.  The 
Abbe  haftens  through  his  narrations  as  if  he  was  glad  to 
get  from  them,  that  he  may  enter  the  more  copious  field 
of  eloquence  and  imagination. 

THE  actions  of  Trenton  and  Princeton  in  New- 
Jerfey,  in  December  1776,  and  January  following,  on 
which  the  fate  of  America  ftood  for  a  while  trembling  on 
the  point  of  fufpence,  and  from  which  the  moft  important 
confequences  followed,  are  comprifed  within  a  fingle 
paragraph  faintly  conceived,  and  barren  pf  character,  cir- 
cumftance  and  difcription. 

"ON  the  25th  of  December,"  fays  the  Abbe,  "they 

(the 


[     '7    ] 

4C  (the  Americans)  crofled  the  Delaware,  and  fell  acd» 
c<  dentally  upon  Trenton,  which  was  occupied  by  fifteen 
"  hundred  of  the  twelve  thoufand  Heffians,  fold  in  fo 
<c  bafe  a  manner  by  their  avaricious  mafter,  to  the  King 
<c  of  Great  Britain.  This  corps  was  maffa-cred^  taken, 
<c  or  difperfed.  Eight  days  after,  three  Englifh  regiments 
"  were  in  like  manner  driven  from  Princeton,  but  after 
*c  having  better  fupported  their  reputation  than  the  foreign 
"  troops  in  their  pay." 

THIS  is  all  the  account  which  is  given  of  thefe  moft 
interefting  events.      The  Abbe  has  preceded  them  by  two 
or  three  pages  on  the  military  operations  of  both  armies, 
from  the  time  of  General  Howe  arriving  before  New- 
York  from  Hallifax,  and  the  vaft  reinforcements  of  Britifh 
and  foreign  troops  with  Lord  Howe  from  England.     But 
in  thefe,    there  is  fo  much  miftake,    and  fo  many  omif- 
fions,  that,  to  fet  them  right,  muft  be  the  bufmefs  of  hi- 
ftory  and  not  of  a  letter.     The  action  of  Long-Ifland  is 
but  barely  hinted  at,    and  the  operations  at  the  White 
Plains  wholly  omitted  :  as  are  likewife  the  attack  and  lofs 
of  fort  Wafhington,  with  a  garrifon  of  about  two  thoufand 
five  hundred  men,  and  the  precipitate  evacuation  of  Fort 
<Lee,  in  confcquence  thereof;  which  lofles  were  in  a  great 
meafure  the  caufe  of  the  retreat  through  the  Jerfies  to  the 
Delaware,   a  diftance  of  about  ninety  miles.     Neither  is 
the  manner  of  the  retreat  defcribed,  which,  from  the  feafon 
of  the  year,  the  nature  of  the  country,  the  nearnefs  of  the 
two  armies,    (fometimes  within  fight  and  (hot  of  each 
other  for  fuch  a  length  of  way)  the  rear  of  the  one  em- 
ployed in  pulling  down  bridges,  and  the  van  of  the  other 
in  building  them  up,  muft  neceflarily  be  accompanied  with 
many  interefting  circumftances. 

C  IT 


IT  was  a  period  of  diftrefles.  A  crifis  rather  of  danger 
than  of  hope.  There  is  no  defcription  can  do  it  juftice  ; 
and  even  the  adtois  in  it,  looking  back  upon  the  fcene, 
are  furprifed  how  they  got  through  ;  and  at  a  lofs  to 
account  for  thofe  powers  of  the  mind  and  fprings  of  ani- 
mation, by  which  they  withftood  the  force  of  accumu- 
lated misfortune. 

IT  was  expected,  that  the  time  for  which  the  army  was 
inlifted,  would  carry  the  campaign  fo  far  into  the  winter, 
that  the  feverity  of  the  feafon,  and  the  confequent  condi- 
tion of  the  roads,  would  prevent  any  material  operation 
of  the  enemy,  until  the  new  army  could  be  raifed  for  the 
next  year.  And  I  mention  it,  as  a  matter  worthy  of  atten- 
tion, by  all  future  hiftorians,  that  the  movements  of  the 
American  army,  until  the  attack  upon  the  Heflian  poft 
at  Trenton,  the  26th  of  December,  are  to  be  confidered  as 
operating  to  effect  no  other  principal  purpofe  than  delay, 
and  to  wear  away  the  campaign  under  all  the  difadvantages 
of  an  unequal  force,  with  as  little  misfortune  as  poffible. 

BUT  the  lofs  of  the  garrifon  at  fort  Wafhington  on  the 
i6th  of  November,  and  the  expiration  of  the  time  of  a 
confiderable  part  of  the  army,  fo  early  as  the  3Oth  of  the 
fame  month,  and  which  were  to  be  followed  by  almoft 
daily  expirations  afterwards,  made  retreat  the  only  final 
expedient.  To  thefe  circumftances  may  be  added  the  for- 
lorn and  deftitute  condition  of  the  few  that  remained  ;  for 
the  garrifon  of  Fort  Lee,nvhich  compofed  almoft  the  whole 
of  the  retreat,  had  been  obliged  to  abandon  it  fo  inftan- 
taneoufly,  that  every  article  of  ftores  and  baggage  was 
left  behind,  and  in  this  deftitute  condition,  without  tent 
or  blanket,  and  without  any  other  utenfils  to  drefs  their 

provifion, 


t     19    ] 

provifion  than  what  they  procured  by  the  way,  they  per- 
formed a  march  of  about  ninety  miles,  and  had  the  addrefs 
and  management  to  prolong  it  to  the  fpace  of  nineteen  days. 

BY  this  unexpected  or  rather  unthoughtof  turn  of  af- 
fairs, the  country  w,as  in  an  inftant  furprifed  into  confu- 
fion,  and  found  an  enemy  within  its  bowels,  without  an 
army  to  oppofe  him.  There  were  no  fuccours  to  be  had, 
but  from  the  free-will  offering  of  the  inhabitants.  All  was 
choice  and  every  man  reafoned  for  himfelf. 

IT  was  in  this  fituation  of  affairs,  equally  calculated 
to  confound  or  to  infpire,  that  the  gentleman,  the  mer- 
chant, the  farmer,  the  tradefman  and  the  labourer  mu- 
tually turned  from  all  the  conveniencies  of  home,  to  per- 
form the  duties  of  private  foldiers  and  undergo  the  feveri- 
ties  of  a  winter  campaign.  The  delay,  fo  judicioufly 
contrived  on  the  retreat,  afforded  time  for  the  volunteer 
reinforcements  to  join  General  Wafhington  on  the  De- 
laware. 

THE  Abbe  is  likewife  wrong  in  faying,  that  the  Ame- 
rican army  fell  accidentally  on  Trenton.  It  was  the  very 
object  for  which  General  Wamington  croffed  the  Dela- 
ware in  the  dead  of  the  night  and  in  the  midfl  of  fnow, 
ftorms,  and  ice ;  and  which  he  immediately  recroffed  with 
his  prifoners,  as  foon  as  he  had  accomplifhed  his  purpofe. 
Neither  was  the  intended  enterprife  sffecret  to  the  enemy, 
information  having  been  fent  of  it  by  letter,  from  a  Bri- 
tifti  Officer  at  Princeton  to  Colonel  Rolle,  who  com- 
manded the  Heffians  at  Trenton,  which  letter  was  after- 
wards found  by  the  Americans.  Neverthelefs  the  pod 
was  completely  furprifed.  A  fmall  circumftance,  which 

C  2  had 


[       20      ] 

had  the  appearance  of  miftake  on  the  part  of  the  Ameri- 
cans, led  to  a  more  capital  and  real  miftake  on  the  part 
ofRolle. 

THE  cafe  was  this.  A  detachment  of  twenty  or  thirty 
Americans  had  been  fent  acrofs  the  river  from  a  poft,  a  few 
miles  above,  by  an  Officer  unacquainted  with  the  intended 
attack  ;  thefe  were  met  by  a  body  of  Heflians  on  the  night, 
to  which  the  information  pointed,  which  was  Chriftmas 
night,  and  repulfed.  Nothing  further  appearing,  and  the 
Heflians,  miftaking  this  for  the  advanced  party,  fuppofed 
the  enterprife  difconcerted,  which  at  that  time  was  not 
began,  and  under  this  idea,  returned  to  their  quarters  ;  fo 
that,  what  might  have  raifed  an  alarm,  and  brought  the 
Americans  into  an  ambufcade,  ferved  to  take  off  the  force 
of  an  information  and  promote  the  fuccefs  of  the  enter- 
prife. Soon  after  day  light  General  Wafhington  entered 
the  town,  and  after  a  little  oppofition,  made  himfelf  mafter 
of  it,  with  upwards  of  nine  hundred  prifoners. 

THIS  combination  of  equivocal  circumftances,  falling 
within  what  the  Abbe  ftiles  "  the  wide  empire  of  chance" 
would  have  afforded  a  fine  field  for  thought,  and  I  wifh, 
for  the  fake  of  that  elegance  of  reflection  he  is  fo  capable 
of  ufing,  that  he  had  known  it. 

BUT  the  action  at  Princeton  was  accompanied  by  a  flill 
greater  embarafment\>f  matters,  and  followed  by  more 
extraordinary  confequences.  The  Americans,  by  a  hap- 
py ftroke  of  generalfhip,  in  this  inftance,  not  only  de- 
ranged and  defeated  all  the  plans  of  the  Britifh,  in  the 
intended  moment  of  execution,  but  drew  from  their  pofts 
the  enemy  they  were  not  able  to  drive,  and  obliged  them 

to 


to  clofe  the  campaign.  As  the  circumftance  is  a  curiofity 
in  war  and  not  well  underftood  in  Europe,  I  ftiall,  as  con- 
cifely  as  I  can,  relate  the  principal  parts ;  they  may  ferve 
to  prevent  future  hiftorians  from  error,  and  recover  from 
forgetful nefs  a  fcene  of  magnificent  fortitude. 

IMMEDIATELY  after  the  furprize  of  the  Heflians  at 
Trenton,  General  Wafhington  recrofled  the  Delaware, 
which  at  this  place  is  about  three  quarters  of  a  mile  over, 
and  reaffumed  his  former  poft  on  the  Pennfylvania  fide. 
Trenton  remained  unoccupied,  and  the  enemy  were  pofted 
at  Princeton,  twelve  miles  diftant,  on  the  road  towards 
New- York.  The  weather  was  now  growing  very  fevere, 
and  as  there  were  very  few  houfes  near  the  fhore  where 
General  Waftiington  had  taken  his  ftation,  the  greateft 
part  of  his  army  remained  out  in  the  woods  and  fields. 
Thefe,  with  fome  other  circumftances,  induced  the  recrofs- 
ing  the  Delaware  and  taking  pofieffion  of  Trenton.  It 
was  undoubtedly  a  bold  adventure,  and  carried  with  it  the 
appearance  of  defiance,  efpecially  when  we  confider  the 
panic  ftruck  condition  of  the  enemy  on  the  lofs  of  the 
Heflian  poft.  But  in  order  to  give  a  juft  idea  of  the  afrair, 
it  is  neceflary,  I  fhould  defcribe  the  place. 

TRENTON  is  fituated  on  a  rifing  ground,  about  three 
quarters  of  a  mile  diftant  from  the  Delaware,  on  the 
eaftern  or  Jerfey  fide  -9  and  is  cut  into  two  divifions  by  a 
fmall  creek  or  rivulet,  fufficient  to  turn  a  mill  which  is 
on  it,  after  which  it  empties  itfelf  at  nearly  right  angles 
into  the  Delaware.  The  upper  divifion  which  is  to  the  north 
eaft,  contains  about  feventy  or  eighty  houfes,  and  the  lower 
about  forty  or  fifty.  The  ground  on  each  fide  this  creek, 
and  on  which  the  houfes  are,  is  likewife  rifing,  and  the 

two 


[      22      ] 

two  divifions  prefent  an  agreeable  profpeft  to  each  other, 
with  the  creek  between,  on  which  there  is  a  fmall  ftone 
bridge  of  one  arch. 

SCARCELY  had  General  Wafhington  taken  poft  here, 
and  before  the  feveral  parties  of  militia,  out  on  detach- 
ments, or  on  their  way,  could  be  collected,  than  the  Britifh, 
leaving  behind  them  aftrong  garrifon  at  Princeton,  marched 
Suddenly  and  entered  Trenton  at  the  upper  or  north  eaft 
quarter.  A  party  of  the  Americans  fkirmifhed  with  the 
advanced  party  of  the  Britifh,  to  afford  time  for  removing 
the  (tores  and  baggage,  and  withdrawing  over  the  bridge. 

IN  a  little  time  the  Britifh  had  pofieflion  of  one  half  of 
the  town,  General  Wamington  of  the  other,  and  the 
creek  only  feparated  the  two  armies.  Nothing  could  be 
a  more  critical  fituation  than  this,  and  if  ever  the  fate  of 
America  depended  on  the  event  of  a  day,  it  was  now. 
The  Delaware  was  filling  faft  with  large  fheets  of  driving 
ice  and  was  impaflable,  fo  that  no  retreat  into  Pennfyl- 
vania  could  be  effected,  neither  is  it  poflible,  in  the  face 
of  an  enemy,  to  pafs  a  river  of  fuch  extent.  The  roads 
were  broken  and  rugged  with  the  froft,  and  the  main  road 
was  occupied  by  the  enemy. 

/ 

ABOUT  four  o'clock  a  party  of  the  Britifh  approached 
the  bridge,  with  a  defign  to  gain  it,  but  were  repulfed. 
They  made  no  more  attempts,  though  the  creek  itfelf  is  pafs- 
able  any  where  between  the  bridge  and  the  Delaware.  It 
runs  in  a  rugged  natural  made  ditch,  over  which  a  perfon 
may  pafs  with  little  difficulty,  the  ftream  being  rapid  and 
(hallow.  Evening  was  now  coming  on,  and  the  Britifh, 
believing  they  had  all  the  advantages  they  could  wifh  for, 

and 


F     *3     ] 

and  that  they  could  ufe  them  when  they  pleafed,  difcon- 
tinued  all  further  operations,  and  held  themfelves  prepared 
to  make  the  attack  next  morning. 

i 

BUT  the  next  morning  produced  a  fcene,  as  elegant  as 
it  was  unexpected.  The  Britifli  were  under  arms  and 
ready  to  march  to  action,  when  one  of  their  light-horfe 
from  Princeton  came  furioufly  down  the  ftreet,  with  an 
account,  that  General  Wafhington  had  that  morning  at- 
tacked and  carried  the  Britifh  poft  at  that  place,  and  was 
proceeding  on  to  feize  the  magazine  at  Brunfwick ;  on 
which  the  Britim,  who  were  then  on  the  point pf  making  an 
aflault  on  the  evacuated  camp  of  the  Americans,  wheeled 
about,  and  in  a  fit  of  confirmation  marched  for  Princeton. 

'f  HIS  retreat  is  one  of  thofe  extraordinary  circum- 
ftances,  that  in  future  ages  may  probably  pafs  for  fable. 
For  it  will  with  difficulty  be  believed,  that  two  armies,  on 
which  fuch  important  confequences  depended,  mould  be 
crouded  into  fo  fmall  a  fpace  as  Trenton,  and  that  the 
one,  on  the  eve  of  an  engagement,  when  every  ear  is  fup- 
pofed  to  be  open,  and  every  watchfulnefs  employed,  mould 
move  completely  from  the  ground,  with.all  its  ftores,  bag- 
gage, and  artillery,  unknown  and  even  unfufpe&ed  by 
the  other.  And  fo  entirely  were  the  Britiih  deceived,  that 
when  they  heard  the  report  of  the  cannon  and  fmall  arms 
at  Princeton,  they  fuppofed  it  to  be  thunder,  though  in 
the  depth  of  winter. 

General  Wafhington,  the  better  to  cover  and  difguife 
his  retreat  from  Trenton,  had  ordered  a  line  of  fires  to  be 
lighted  up  in  front  of  his  camp.  Thefe  not  only  ferved 
to  give  an  appearance  of  going  to  reft,  and  continuing 

that 


[       24      ] 

that  deception,  but  they  effectually  concealed  from  the 
Britifh  whatever  was  acting  behind  them,  for  flame  can 
no  more  be  feen  through  than  a  wall,  and  in  this  fituation, 
it  may  with  fome  propriety  be  faid,  they  became  a 
pillar  of  fire  to  the  one  army,  and  a  pillar  of  a  cloud 
to  the  other  :  after  this,  by  a  circuitous  march  of  about 
'  eighteen  miles,  the  Americans  reached  Princeton  early  in 
the  morning, 

THE  number  of  prifohers  taken  were  between  two  and 
three  hundred,  with  which  General  Wafhington  imme- 
diately fet  off.  The  van  of  the  Britifh  army  from  Tren- 
ton entered  Princeton  about  an  hour  after  the  Americans 
had  left  it,  who  continuing  their  march  for  the  remainder 
of  the  day,  arrived  in  the  evening  at  a  convenient  fituation, 
wide  of  the  main  road  to  Brunfwick,  and  about  fixteen 

miles  diftant  from  Princeton. But  fo  wearied  and  ex- 

haufted  were  they,  with  the  continual  arid  unabated  fervice 
and  fatigue  of  two  days  and  a  night,  from  action  to  action, 
without  flicker  and  almofl  without  refreftiment,  that  the 
bare  and  frozen  ground,  with  no  other  covering  than  the 
iky,  became  to  them  a  place  of  comfortable  reft.  By 
thefe  two  events,  'and  with  but  little  comparative  force  to 
accomplish  them,  the  Americans  clofed  with  advantages 
a  campaign,  which,  but  a  few  days  before,  threatened  the 
country  with  deftrudtion.  The  Britifh  army,  apprehenfive 
for  the  fafety  of  their  magazines  at  Brunfwick,  eighteen 
miles  diftant,  marched  immediately  for  that  place,  where 
they  arrived  late  in  the  evening,  and  from  which  they 
made  no  attempts  to  move,  for  nearly  five  months, 

HAVING  thus  ftated  the  principal  outlines  of  thefe  two 
imoft  intereiling  actions,  I  (hall  now  quit  them,  to  put  the 

Abbe 


[      25      3 

Abbe  right  in  his  miftated  account  of  the  debt  and  paper 
money  of  America,  wherein,  fpeaking  of  thefe  matters, 
he  fays, 

"  Thefe  ideal  riches  were  rejected.  The  more  the 
"  multiplication  of  them  was  urged  by  want,  the  greater 
"  did  their  depreciation  grow.  The  Congrefs  was  indig- 
*6  nant  at  the  affronts  given  to  its  money,  and  declared  all 
**  thofe  to  be  traitors  to  their  country  who  fhould  not  re- 
"  ceive  it  as  they  would  have  received  gold  itfelf. 

e<  DID  not  this  body  know,  that  prepoflfeffions  are  no 

"  more  to  be  controled  than  feelings  are  ?  Did  it  not  per- 

"  ceive,  that  in  the  prefent  crifis  every  rational  man  would 

"  be  afraid  of  expofing  his  fortune  ?  Did  it  not  fee,  that 

"  at  the  beginning  of  a  republic  it  permitted  to  itfelf  the 

"  exercife  of  fuch  acts  of  defpotifm  as  are  unknown  even 

"  in  the  countries  which  are  moulded  to,  and  become  fa- 

<c  miliar  with,  fervitude  and  oppreflion  ?  Could  it  pretend 

"  that  it  did  not  punifh  a  want  of  confidence  with  the 

<c  pains  which  would  have  been  fcarcely  merited  by  revolt 

"  and  treafon  ?  Of  all  this  was  the  Congrefs  well  aware. 

"  But  it  had  no  choice  of  means.    Its  defpifed  and  defpi- 

"  cable  fcraps  of  paper  were  actually  thirty  times  below 

"  their  original  value,  when  more  of  them  were  ordered 

"  to  be  made.     On  the  1 3th  of  September,   1779,  there 

"  was  of  this  paper  money,    amongft  the  public,    to  the 

<c  amount  of  £35, 544.,  155.     The  ftate  owed  moreover 

"  £^»3^5'35^»  without  reckoning  the  particular  debts  of 

"  fingle  provinces." 

IN  the  above  recited  paffages  the  Abbe  fpeaks  as  if  the 
United  States  had  contracted  a  debt  of  upwards  of  forty 

D  millions 


millions  pounds  flerling,  befides  the  debts  of  individual 
States.  After  which,  fpeaking  of  foreign  trade  with  Ame- 
rica, he  fays,  that  "  thole  countries  in  Earope,  which  arc 
"  truly  commercial  ones,  knowing  that  North-America 
"  had  been  reduced  to  contract  debts  at  the  epoch  of  even 
"  her  greateft  profpcrity,  wifely  thought,  that,  in  her  pre- 
"  fent  diftrefs,  fhe  would  be  able  to  pay  but  very  little, 
"  for  what  might  be  carried  to  her." 

I  know  it  muft  be  extremely  difficult  to  make  forergn- 
crs  underftand  the  nature  and  circumftances  of  our  paper 
money,  becaufe  there  are  natives,  who  do  not  underftand 
.it  themfelves.  But  with  us  its  fate  is  now  determined. 
Common  confent  has  configned  it  to  reft  with  that  kind 
of  regard,  which  the  long  fervice  of  inanimate  things  in- 
fenfibly  obtains  from  mankind.  Every  ftone  in  the  bridge, 
that  has  carried  us  over,  feems  to  have  a  claim  upon  our 
efteem.  But  this  was  a  corner  ftone,  and  its  ufefulnefs 
cannot  be  forgotten.  There  is  fomething  in  a  grateful 
mind,  which  extents  itfelf  even  to  things  that  can  neither 
be  benefited  by  regard,  nor  fufTer  by  neglect ;— But  fo  it 
is  3  and  almoft  every  man  is  fenfible  of  the  effect. 

BUT  to  return.  The  paper  money,  though  ifTued  from 
Congrefs  under  the  name  of  dollars,  did  not  come  from 
that  body  always  at  that  value.  Thofe  which  were  if- 
fued  the  firft  year,  were  equal  to  gold  and  filver.  The 
fecond  year  lefs,  the  thfrd  ftill  lefs,  and  fo  on,  for  nearly 
the  fpace  of  five  years  j  at  the  end  of  which,  I  imagine, 
that  the  whole  value,  at  which  Congrefs  might  pay  away 
the  feveral  emiflions,  taking  them  together,  was  about 
ten  or  twelve  millions  pounds  fterling. 

Now 


Now  as  it  would  have  taken  ten  or  twelve  millions 
fterling  of  taxes,  to  carry  on  the  war  for  five  years,  and, 
as  while  this  money  was  iffuing  and  likewife  depreciating; 
down  to  nothing,  there  were  none,  or  few  valuable  taxes 
paid  ;  confequently  the  event  to  the  public  was  the  fame, 
whether  they  funk  ten  or  twelve  millions  of  expended  mo- 
ney, by  depreciation,  or  paid  ten  or  twelve  millions  by 
taxation  ;  for  as  they  did  not  do  both,  and  chofe  to  do 
one,  the  matter  which,  in  a  general  view,  was  indifferent. 
And  therefore,  what  the  Abbe  fuppofes  to  be  a  debt,  has 
now  no  exiftence;  it  having  been  paid,  by  every  body 
eonfenting,  to  reduce  at  his  own  expence,  from  the  value 
of  the  bills  continually  paffing  among  themfelves,  a  fum, 
equal  to  nearly  what  the  expence  of  .the  war  was  for  five 
years. 

AGAIN.  The  paper  money  having  now  ceafed,  and 
the  depreciation  with  it,  and  gold  and  filver  fupplied  its 
place,  the  war  will  now  be  carried  on  by  taxation,  which 
will  draw  from  the  public  a  confiderable  lefs  fum  than 
what  the  depreciation  drew ;  but  as  while  they  pay  the 
former,  they  do  not  fuffer  the  latter,  and  as  when  they 
fuffered  the  latter,  they  did  not  pay  the  former,  the 
thing  will  be  nearly  equal,  with  this  moral  advantage,  that 
taxation  occafions  frugality  and  thought,  and  depreciation 
produced  diffipation  and  carelefihefs, 

AND  again.  If  a  man's  portion  of  taxes  comes  to  lefs 
than  what  he  loft  by  the  depreciation,  it  proves  the  alter- 
ation is  in  his  favor.  If  it  comes  to  more,  and  he  is  juft- 
ly  aflefled,  it  mows  that  he  did  not  fuftain  his  proper  fhare 
of  depreciation,  becaufe  the  one  was  as  operatively  his  tax 
as  the  other. 

D  2  IT 


[     28     ] 

IT  is  true,  that  it  never  was  intended,  neither  was  it  fore- 
feen,  that  the  debt  contained  in  the  paper  currency  mould 
fink  itfelf  in  this  manner ;  but  as  by  the  voluntary  con- 
duel:  of  all  and  of  every  one  it  has  arrived  at  this  fate,  the 
debt  is  paid  by  thofe  who  owed  it.  Perhaps  nothing  was 
ever  fo  univerfally  the  adl;  of  a  country  as  this.  Govern- 
ment had  no  hand  in  it.  Every  man  depreciated  his  own 
money  by  his  own  confent,  for  fuch  was  the  effecl:,  which 
the  raifmg  the  nominal  value  of  goods  produced.  But  as 
by  fuch  reduction  he  fuftained  a  lofs  equal  to  what  he 
muft  have  paid  to  fink  it  by  taxation,  therefore  the  line 
of  juftice  is  to  confider  his  lofs  by  the  depreciation  as  his 
tax  for  that  time,  and  not  to  tax  him  when  the  war  is 
over,  to  make  that  money  good  in  any  other  perfons 
hands,  which  became  nothing  in  his  own. 

AGAIN.  The  paper  currency  was  iflued  for  the  exprefg 
purpofe  of  carrying  on  the  war.  It  has  performed  that 
fervice,  without  any  other  material  charge  to  the  public, 
while  it  lafted.  But  to  fuppofe,  as  fome  did,  that,  at  the 
end  of  the  war,  it  was  to  grow  into  gold  or  filver,  or 
become  equal  thereto,  was  to  fuppofe  that  we  were  to 
get  two  hundred  millions  of  dollars  by  going  to  war,  in- 
ftead  of  paying  the  coft  of  carrying  it  on. 

BUT  if  any  thing  in  the  fituation  of  America,  as  to  her 
currency  or  her  circumftances,  yet  remains  not  underftood, 
then  let  it  be  remembered,  that  this  war  is  the  public's 
war  ;  the  people's  war  ;  the  country's  war.  It  is  their 
independence  that  is  to  be  fupported  ;  their  property  that 
is  to  be  fecured  ;  their  country  that  is  to  be  faved.  Here, 
government,  the  army,  and  the  people,  are  mutually 
and  reciprocally  one.  In  other  wars,  kings  may  lofe  their 

thrones 


thrones,  and  their  dominions  ;  but  here,  the  lofs  muft  fall 
on  the  majefty  of  the  multitude,  and  the  property  they  are 
contending  to  fave.  Every  man  being  fenfible  of  this,  he 
goes  to  the  field,  or  pays  his  portion  of  the  charge,  as  the 
fovereign  of  his  own  pofTeffions ;  and  when  he  is  con- 
quered a  monarch  falls. 

THE  remark,  which  the  Abbe  in  the  conclufion  of  the 
paflage  has  made,  refpe&ing  America  contracting  debts 
in  the  time  of  her  profperity,  (by  which  he  means,  be- 
fore the  breaking  out  of  hoftilitiesj  ferves  to  fhow,  though 
he  has  not  made  the  application,  the  very  great  commer- 
cial difference  between  a  dependent  and  an  independent 
country.  In  a  ftate  of  dependence,  and  with  a  fettered  com- 
merce, though  with  all  the  advantages  of  peace,  her  trade 
could  not  balance  itfelf,  and  fhe  annually  run  into  debt. 
But  now,  in  a  ftate  of  independence,  though  involved  in 
war,  fhe  requires  no  credit ;  her  ftores  are  full  of  mer- 
chandize, and  gold  and  filver  are  become  the  currency  of 
the  country.  How  thefe  things  have  eftablifhed  themfelves 
are  difficult  to  account  for:  But  they  are  fads,  and  fa6U 
are  more  powerful  than  arguments. 

As  it  is  probable  this  letter  will  undergo  a  republica- 
tion  in  Europe,  the  remarks  here  thrown  together  will 
ferve  to  (how  the  extreme  folly  of  Britain  in  refting  her 
hopes  of  fuccefs  on  the  extinction  of  our  paper  currency. 
The  expectation  is  at  once  fo  childifh  and  forlorn,  that 
it  places  her  in  the  laughable  condition  of  a  famifhed  lion 
watching  for  prey  at  a  fpider's  web. 

FROM  this  account  of  the  currency,  the  Abbe  proceeds 
to  ftate  the  condition  of  America  in  the  winter  1777,  and 

the 


[     30     ] 

the  fpring  follbwing;  and  clofes  his  obfcrvations  with 
mentioning  the  treaty  of  alliance,  which  was  figned  in 
France,  and  the  proportions  of  the  Britifh  Miniftry, 
which  were  rejected  in  America.  But  in  the  manner  in 
which  the  Abbe  has  arranged  his  facts,  there  is  a  very 
material  error,  that  not  only  he,  but  other  European 
hiftorians  have  fallen  into  ;  none  of  them  having  afligned 
the  true  caufe  why  the  BritHh  propofals  were  rejected, 
and  all  of  them  have  afligned  a  wrong  one, 

IN  the  winter  1777,  and  fpring  following,  Congrefs 
were  aflembled  at  York-town  in  Pennfylvania,  the  Bri- 
tifh were  in  pofleffioni  of  Philadelphia,  and  General 
Waftiington  with  the  army  were  encamped  in  huts  at  the 
Valley-Forge,  twenty-five  miles  diftant  therefrom.  To 
all,  who  can  remember,  it  was  a  feafon  of  hardfhip,  but 
not  ofdefpair;  and  the  Abbe,  fpeaking  of  this  period  and 
its  inconveniences,  fays, 

"  A  multitude  of  privations,  added  to  fo  many  other 

c<  misfortunes,  might  make  the  Americans  regret  their 

"  former  tranquility,    and  incline  them  to  an  accommo- 

"  dation  with  England.     In  vain  had   the  people  been 

"  bound  to  the  new  government  by  the  facrednefs  of  oaths 

c<  and  the  influence  of  religion.     In  vain  had  endeavours 

"  been  ufed  to  convince  them  that  it  was  impofiible  to 

"  treat  fafely  with  a  country,    in  which  one  parliament 

"  might  overturn,    what  fhould  have  been  eftablimed  by 

"  another.     In  vain  had  they  been  threatened  with  the 

c<  eternal  refentment  of  an  exafperated  and  vindictive  ene- 

"  my.     It  was  poilible  that  thefe  diftant  troubles  might 

"  not  be  balance^  by  the  weight  of  prefent  evils. 

«c  SQ 


C     3-i     ] 

<*  So  thought  the  British  miniftry,  when  they  fent  to 
u  the  New  World  public  agents,  authorized  to  offer  eve- 
se  ry  thing  except  independence  to  thefe  very  Americans, 
<c  from  whom  they  had  two  years  before  exacted  an  un- 
<c  conditional  fubmiffion.  It  is  not  improbable,  but  that 
"  by  this  plan  of  conciliation,  a  few  months  fooner,  fome 
"  effecT:  might  have  been  produced.  But  at  the  period, 
<e  at  which  it  was  propofed  by  the  Court  of  London,  it 
*<  was  rejected  with  difdain,  becaufe  this  meafu re  appeared 
*c  but  as  an  argument  of  fear  and  weaknefs.  The  people 
*c  were  already  re-affured.  The  Congrefs,  the  Gene- 
"  rals,  the  troops,  the  bold  and  fkilful  men,  in  each 
<c  colony  had  poflefled  themfelves  of  the  authority  ;  every 
"  thing  had  recovered  its  firft  fpirit.  This  was  the  effett 
"  of  a  treaty  of  friend/hip  and  commerce  between  the  United 
"  States  and  the  Court  of  Fer failles  y  ftgned  the  6th  of '  Fe- 
"  bruary,  1778. 

ON  this  paflage  of  the  Abbe's  I  cannot  help  remark- 
ing, that,  to  unite  time  with  circumftance,  is  a  material 
nicety  in  hiftory;  the  want  of  which  frequently  throws 
it  into  endlefs  confufion  and  miftake,  occasions  a  total 
feparation  between  caufes  and  confequences,  and  connects 
them  with  others  they  are  not  immediately,  and  fome- 
times  not  at  all,  related  to. 

THE  Abbe,  in  faying  that  the  offers  of  the  Britifh 
Miniftry  "were  rejected  With  difdain,"  is  right,  as  to 
the  faft)  but  wrong  as  to  the  time ;  and  this  error  in  the 
time,  has  occafioned  him  to  be  miftaken  in  the  caufe. 

THE  figning  the  treaty  of  Paris  the  6th  of  February, 
1778,  could  have  no  effect  on  the  mind  or  politics  of 

America, 


C      32      ] 

America  until  it  was  known  in  America ;  and  therefore, 
when  the  Abbe  fays,  that  the  reje&ion  of  the  Britifh  of- 
fers was  in  confequence  of  the  alliance,  he  mu ft  mean, 
that  it  was  in  confequence  of  the  alliance  being  known  in 
America ;  which  was  not  the  cafe  :  And  by  this  miftake 
he  not  only  takes  from  her  the  reputation,  which  her  un- 
fhaken  fortitude  in  that  trying  fituation  deferves,  but  is 
Hkewife  led  very  injurioufly  to  fuppofe,  that  had  flie  not 
known  of  the  treaty,  the  offers  would  probably  have  been 
accepted  ;  whereas  fhe  knew  nothing  of  the  treaty  at 
the  time  of  the  rejection,  and  confequently  did  not  re- 
ject them  on  that  ground. 

THE  propofitions  or  offers  above  mentioned  were 
contained  in  two  bills  brought  into  the  Britifh  Parlia- 
ment by  Lord  North  on  the  iyth  of  February,  1778. 
Thofe  bills  were  hurried  thro'  both  Houfes  with  unufual 
hafte,  and  before  they  had  gone  thro*  all  the  cuftomary 
forms  of  Parliament,  copies  of  them  were  fent  over  to 
Lord  Howe  and  General  Howe,  then  in  Philadelphia, 
who  were  likewife  Commiffioners.  General  Howe  or- 
dered them  to  be  printed  in  Philadelphia,  and  fent  copies 
of  them  by  a  flag  to  General  Wafhington,  to  be  for- 
warded to  Congrefs  at  Yorktown,  where  they  arrived  the 
2ift  of  April,  1778.  Thus  much  for  the  arrival  of  the 
bills  in  America. 

CONGRESS,  as  is  their  ufual  mode,  appointed  a  com- 
mittee from  their  own  body,  to  examine  them  and  report 
thereon.  The  report  was  brought  in  the  next  day  (the 
twenty-fecond)  was  read,  and  unanimoufly  agreed  to, 
entered  on.  their  journals,  and  publiftied  for  the  informa- 
tion of  the  country.  Now  this  report  muft  be  the  re- 
jection 


[    33    J 

tion  to  which  the  Abbe  alludes,  becaufe  Congrefs  gave 
no  other  formal  opinion  on  thofe  bills  and  proportions : 
And  on  a  fubfequent  application  from  the  Britifh  Com- 
miflioners,  dated  the  ayth  of  May,  and  received  at  York- 
Town  the  6th  of  June,  Congrefs  immediately  referred 
them  for  an  anfwer  to  their  printed  refolves  of  the  22d  of 
April.  Thus  much  for  the  rejection  of  the  offers. 

ON  the  2d  of  May,  that  is,  eleven  days  after  the 
above  rejection  was  made,  the  treaty  between  the  United 
States  and  France  arrived  at  Yorktown ;  and  until  this 
moment  Congrefs  had  not  the  leaft  notice  or  idea,  that 
fuch  a  meafure  was  in  any  train  of  execution.  But  left 
this  declaration  of  mine  mould  pafs  only  foi  aflertion, 
I  mall  fupport  it  by  proof,  for  it  is  material  to  the  charac- 
ter and  principle  of  the  revolution  to  mow,  that  no  con- 
dition of  America,  fince  the  declaration  of  independence, 
however  trying  and  fevere,  ever  operated  to  produce  the 
moft  diftant  idea  of  yielding  it  up  either  by  force,  diftrefs, 
artifice  or  perfuafion.  And  this  proof  is  the  more  necef- 
fary,  becaufe  it  was  the  fyftem  of  the  Britim  Miniftry  at 
this  time,  as  well  as  before  and  fmce,  to  hold  out  to  the 
European  powers  that  America  was  unfixt  in  her  refo- 
lutions  and  policy ;  hoping  by  this  artifice  to  leflen  her 
reputation  in  Europe,  and  weaken  the  confidence  which 
thofe  powers  or  any  of  them  might  be  inclined  to  place 
in  her. 


AT  the  time  thefe  matters  were  tranfacling,  I  was 
fecretary  in  the  foreign  department  of  Congrefs.  All  the 
political  letters  from  the  American  Commiflioners  refted  in 
my  hands,  and  all  that  were  officially  written  went  from 
my  office  $  and  fo  far  from  Congrefs  knowing  any  thing 

E  of 


[     34     ] 

of  the  figning  the  treaty,  at  the  time  they  rejected  the 
Britifh  offers,  they  had  not  received  a  line  of  information 
from  their  Commiffioners  at  Paris  on  any  fubjecl:  whatever 
for  upwards  of  a  twelve  month.  Probably  the  lofs  of  the 
port  of  Philadelphia  and  the  navigation  of  the  Delaware, 
together  with  the  danger  of  the  feas,  covered  at  this  time 
with  Britifh  cruizers,  contributed  to  the  difappointment. 

ONE  packet,  it  is  true,  arrived  at  York-town  in  Ja- 
nuary preceding,  which  was  about  three  months  before 
the  arrival  of  the  treaty  ;  but,  ftrange  as  it  may  appear, 
every  letter  had  been  taken  out,  before  it  was  put  on 
board  the  veflel  which  brought  it  from  France,  and  blank 
white  paper  put  in  their  ftead. 

HAVING  thus  ftated  the  time  when  the  propofals  from 
the  Britifh  Commiflioners  were  firft  received,  and  likewife 
the  time  when  the  treaty  of  alliance  arrived,  and  fhewn 
that  the  rejeaion  of  the  former  was  eleven  days  prior  to 
the  arrival  of  the  latter,  and  without  the  leaft  knowledge 
of  fuch  circumftance  having  taken  place  or  being  about 
to  take  place ;  the  rejection,  therefore,  muft,  and  ought 
to  be  attributed  to  the  fixt  unvaried  fentiments  of  Ameri- 
ca refpecting  the  enemy  fhe  is  at  war  with,  and  her  de- 
termination to  fupport  her  independence  to  the  laft  pofiible 
effort,  and  not  to  any  new  circumftance  in  her  favour, 
which  at  that  time  fhe  did  not  and  could  not  know  of. 

BESIDES,  there  is  a  vigour  of  determination  and  fpirit  of 
defiance  in  the  language  of  the  rejection,  (which  I  here  fub- 
join)  which  derive  their  greateft  glory  by  appearing  before 
the  treaty  was  known  ;  for  that,  which  is  bravery  in  diftrefs 
becomes  infult  in  profperity  :  And  the  treaty  placed  America 

on 


C    35    3 

on  fuch  a  flrong  foundation,  that  had  fhe  then  known  it, 
the  anfwer  which  (he  gave,  would  have  appeared  rather  as 
an  air  of  triumph,  than  as  the  glowing  ferenity  of  forti- 
tude. 

UPON  the  whole,  the  Abbe  appears  to  have  entirely 
miftaken  the  matter  ;  for  inftead  of  attributing  the  re- 
je<5Hon  of  the  propofitions  to  our  knowledge  of  the  treaty 
of  alliance  ;  he  fhould  have  attributed  the  origin  of  them 
in  the  Britifh  cabinet,  to  their  knowledge  of  that  event. 
And  then  the  reafon  why  they  were  hurried  over  to  Ame- 
merica  in  the  ftate  of  bills,  that  is,  before  they  were  pafled 
into  a£s,  is  eafily  accounted  for,  which  is,  that  they 
might  have  the  chance  of  reaching  America  before  any 
knowledge  of  the  treaty  fhould  arrive,  which  they  were 
lucky  enough  to  do,  and  there  met  the  fate  they  fo  richly 
merited.  That  thefe  bills  were  brought  into  the  Britifh  Par- 
liament after  the  treaty  with  France  was  figned,  is  proved 
from  the  dates:  The  treaty  being  on  the  6th,  and  the  bills 
the  1  7th  of  February.  And  that  the  figning  the  treaty  was 
known  in  Parliament,  when  the  bills  were  brought  in,  is 
likewife  proved  by  a  fpeech  of  Mr.  Charles  Fox,  on  the 
faid  1  7th  of  February,  who,  in  reply  to  Lord  North,  in- 
formed the  Houfe  of  the  treaty  being  figned,  and  chal- 
lenged the  Minifter's  knowledge  of  the  fame  fact.  *) 

E  2  THOUGH 

»)  I  N    CONGRESS,    April  22d,    1778. 


Committee  to  whom  was  referred  the  General's 
letter  of  the  i8th,  containing  a  certain  printed  paper 
fent  from  Philadelphia,  purporting  to  be  the  draught  of  a  Bill 
for  declaring  the  intenfiom  of  the  Parliament  of  Great-Britain, 
as  to  the  exerdfe  of  what  they  are  pleafed  to  term  their  ri%ht  of 
impofing  taxes  within  thefe  United  States  ;  and  alfo  the  draught 
of  a  Bill  to  enable  the  King  of  Great-  Britain  to  appoint  Com- 


[    36    ] 

I 

THOUGH  I  am  not  furprifed  to  fee  the  Abbe  miftaken 
in  matters  of  hiftory,  afted  at  fo  great  a  diftance  from  his 

fphere 

mifiioners,  with  powers  to  treat,  confult  and  agree  upon  the 
means  of  quieting  certain  diforders  within  the  faid  States,  beg 
leave  to  obferve, 

"THAT  the  faid  paper  being  induftrioufly  circulated  by 
cmifTaries  of  the  enemy,  in  a  partial  and  fecret  manner,  the 
fame  ought  to  be  forthwith  printed  for  the  public  information. 

"  THE  Committee  cannot  afcertain  whether  the  contents  of 
the  faid  paper  have  been  framed  in  Philadelphia,  or  in  Great- 
Britain,  much  lefs  whether  the  fame  are  really  and  truly  intended 
to  be  brought  into  the  Parliament  of  that  kingdom,  or  whether 
the  faid  Parliament  will  confer  thereon  the  ufual  folemnities  of 
their  laws.  But  are  inclined  to  believe  this  will  happen,  for 
the  following  reafons : 

*'  ift.  BECAUSE  their  General  hath  made  divers  feeble  ef- 
forts to  fet  on  foot  fome  kind  of  treaty  during  the  laft  winter, 
though,  either  from  a  miftaken  idea  of  his  own  dignity  and  im- 
portance, the  want  of  information,  or  fome  other  caufe,  he  hath 
not  made  application  to  thofe  who  are  in  veiled  with  a  proper " 
authority. 

*'  2dly.  BECAUSE  they  fuppofe  that  the  fallacious  idea  of  a 
reflation  of  hoftilities  will  render  thefe  States  remifs  in  their 
preparations  for  war. 

^dly.  BECAUSE  believing  the  Americans  wearied  with  war, 
they  fuppofe  we  will  accede  to  their  terms  for  the  fake  of  peace. 

/).thly.  BECAUSE  they  fuppofe  that  ouf  negociations  may  be 
fubjecl  to  a  like  corrupt  influence  with  their  debates. 

"  $thly.  BECAUSE  they  expect  from  this  ftep  the  fame  effecls 
they  did  from  what  one  of  their  minifters  thought  proper  to  call 
his  conciliatory  motion,  viz.  that  it  will  prevent  foreign  powers 
from  giving  aid  to  thefe  States  ;  that  it  will  lead  their  own  fub- 
jedls  to  continue  a  little  longer  the  prefent  war ;  and  that  it  will 
detach  fome  weak  men  in  America  from  the  caufe  of  freedom 
and  virtue. 

"  6thly.  BECAUSE  their  King,  from  his  own  mewing,  hath 
reafon  to  apprehend  that  his  fleets  and  armies,  inttead  of  being 
employed  againft  the  territories  of  thefe  States,  will  be  necefla- 
ry  for  the  defence  of  his  own  dominions.  And 

"  ythly.  BECAUSE  the  impracticability  of  fubjugating  this 
country  being  every  day  more  and  more  manifeft,  it  is  their 
intereft  to  extricate  themfelves  from  the  war  upon  any  terms. 

"  THE  Committee  beg  leave  further  to  obferve,  That,  upon 
a  fuppofition  the  matters  contained  in  the  faid  paper  will  really 


[     37     ] 

fphere  of  immediate  obfervation,  yet  I  am  more  than  fur- 
prifed  to  find  him  wroag,  (or  at  leaft  what  appears  fo  to 

me) 

go  into  the  Britifh  Statute  Book,  they  ferve  to  (hew,  in  a  clear 
point  of  view,  the  weaknefs  and  wicked nefs  of  the  enemy. 

"THEIR  WEAKNESS,, 

"  i ft.  BECAUSE  they  formerly  declared,  not  only  that  they 
had  a  right  to  bind  the  inhabitants  of  thefe  States  in  all  cafes 
whatfoever,  but  alfo  that  the  faid  inhabitants  mould  abjolutely 
and  unconditionally  fubmit  to  the  exercife  of  that  right.  And 
this  fubmiflion  they  have  endeavoured  to  exaft  by  the  fword. 
Receding  from  this  claim,  therefore,  under  the  prefent  circum- 
itances,  mews  their  inability  to  enforce  it. 

"  2dly.  BECAUSE  their  Prince  hath  heretofore  rejedled  the 
humbleft  petitions  of  the  Reprefentatives  of  America,  praying 
to  be  confidered  as  fubjecls,  and  protected  in  the  enjoyment  of 
peace,  liberty  and  fafety  ;  and  hath  waged  a  moil  cruel  war 
againit  them,  and -employed  the  favages  to  butcher  innocent 
women  and  children.  But  now  the  fame  Prince  pretends  to 
treat  with  thofe  very  Reprefentatives,  and  grant  to  the  arms  of 
America  what  he  refufed  to  her  prayers. 

"  3dly.  BECAUSE  they  have  uniformly  laboured  to  conquer 
this  continent,  rejecting  every  idea  of  accomodation  propofed  to 
them,  from  a  confidence  in  their  own  ftrength.  Wherefore  it 
is  evident,  from  the  change  in  their  mode  of  attack,  that  they 
have  loft  this  confidence.  And 

*c  ij.thly.  BECAUSE  the  conftant  language,  fpoken  not  only 
by  their  Minifters,  but  by  the  moft  public  and  authentic  a£ts  of 
the  nation,  hath  been,  that  it  is  incompatible  with  their  dig- 
nity to  treat  with  the  Americans  while  they  have  arms  in  their 
hands.  Notwithftanding  which,  an  offer  is  now  about  to  be 
made  for  treaty. 

"  THE  WICKEDNESS  and  INSINCERITY  of  the  enemy  ap- 
pear from  the  following  coniiderations  : 

"  i ft.  EITHE  R  the  Bills  now  to  be  paffed  contain  a  dicedt  or 
indirect  ceflion  of  a  part  of  their  former  claims,  or  they  do  not. 
If  they  do,  then  it  is  acknowledged  that  they  have  Sacrificed 
many  brave  men  in  an  unjuft  quarrel.  If  they  do  not,  then 
they  are  calculated  to  deceive  America  into  terms,  to  which 
neither  argument  before  the  war,  nor  force  fince,  could  procure 
her  aflent. 

"  zdly.  THE  firft  of  thefe  Bills  appears,  from  the  title,  to 
be  a  declaration  of  the  intentions  of  the  Britim  Parliament  con- 
cerning the  exercife  of  the  right  of  impojing  taxes  within  thefe 
States,  Wherefore,  mould  thefe  States  treat  under  the  faid 


[     38     ] 

me)  in  the  well  enlightened  field  of  philofophical  re- 
flection. Here  the  materials  are  his  own  ;  created  by  him- 
felf  -,  and  the  error  therefore,  is  an  a&  of  the  mind. 

HITHERTO 

Bill,  they  would  indireftly  acknowledge  that  right,  to  obtain 
which  acknowledgment  the  prefent  war  hath  been  avowedly 
undertaken  and  profecuted  on  the  part  of  Great- Britain. 

"  3diy.  SHOULD  fuch  pretended  right  be  fo  acquiefced  in, 
then,  of  confequence,  the  fame  might  be  exercifed  whenever 
the  Britim  Parliament  mould  find  themfelves  in  a  different  tem- 
per and  difpofition ;  fince  it  muft  depend  upon  thofe,  and  fuch 
like  contingencies,  how  far  men  will  act  according  to  their 
former  intentions. 

4thly.  THE  faid  firft  Bill,  in  the  body  thereof,  containeth 
no  new  matter,  but  is  precifely  the  fame  with  the  motion  be- 
fore-mentioned, and  liable  to  all  the  objections  which  lay  againft 
the  faid  motion,  excepting  the  following  particular,  viz.  that  by 
the  motion  actual  taxation  was  to  be  fufpended>  fo  long  as  Ame- 
rica mould  give  as  much  as  the  faid  Parliament  might  think  pro- 
per: Whereas,  by  the  propofed  Bill,  it  is  to  be  fufpended,  as  long 
as  future  Parliaments  continue  of  the  fame  mind  with  the  prefent. 

"  5thly.  FROM  the  fecond  Bill  it  appears,  that  the  Britim 
King  may,  if  he  pleafes,  appoint  Commiffioners  to  treat  and 
agree  with  thofe,  whom  they  pleafe,  about  a  variety  of  things 
therein  mentioned.  But  fuch  treaties  and  agreements  are  to  be 
of  no  validity  without  the  concurrence  of  the  faid  Parliament, 
except  fo  far  as  they  relate  to  thefu/pen/ton  of  hoftilities,  and  of 
certain  of  their  acts,  the  granting  of  pardons,  and  the  appoint- 
ing of  Governors  to  thefe  fovereign,  free  and  indepentend 
States.  Wherefore,  the  faid  Parliament  have  referved  to  them- 
felves, in  exprefs  words,  the  power  of  fetting  afide  any  fuch 
treaty,  and  taking  the  advantage  of  any  circumftances  which 
may  arife  to  fubject  this  continent  to  their  ufurpations. 

"6thly.  THE  faid  Bill,  by  holding  forth  a  tender  of  par- 
don, implies  a  criminality  in  our  juftifiable  refinance,  and  con - 
fequently,  to  treat  under  it  would  be  an  implied  acknowledg- 
ment, that  the  inhabitants  of  thefe  States  were,  what  Britain 
has  declared  them  to  be,  Rebels. 

"  7thly.  THE  inhabitants  of  thefe  States  being  claimed  by 
them  as  fubjects,  they  may. infer,  from  the  nature  of  the  nego- 
ciation  now  pretended  to  be  fet  on  foot,  that  the  faid  inhabitants 
would  of  right  be  afterwards  bound  by  fuch  laws  as  they  mould 
make.  Wherefore  any  agreement  entered  into  on  fuch  nego- 
ciation  might  at  any  future  time  be  repealed.  And 

Sthiy.  BECAUSE  the  faid  Bill  purports,  that  the    Commjf- 


[     39     ] 

HITHERTO  my  remarks  have  been  confined  to  circum- 
ftances;  the  order  in  which  they  arofe,  and  the  events 

they 


fioners  therein  mentioned  may  treat  with  private  individuals ;  a 
meafure  highly  derogatory  to  the  dignity  of  national  character. 

"  FROM  all  which  it  appears  evident  to  your  Committee, 
that  the  faid  Bills  are  intended  to  operate  upon  the  hopes  and 
fears  of  the  good  people  of  thefe  States,  fo  as  to  create  diviiions 
among  them,  and  a  defection  from  the  common  caufe,  now  by 
the  blefling  of  Divine  Providence  drawing  near  to  a  favourable 
iflue.  That  they  are  the  fequel  of  that  infidious  plan,  which, 
from  the  days  of  the  Stamp-act  down  to  the  prefent  time,  hath 
involved  this  country  in  contention  and  bloodfhed.  And  that, 
as  in  other  cafes  fo  in  this,  although  circumftances  may  force 
them  at  times  to  recede  from  their  unjuftifiable  claims,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  but  they  will  as  heretofore,  upon  the  firft  favour- 
able occafion,  again  difplay  that  luft  of  domination,  which  hath 
rent  in  twain  the  mighty  empire  of  Britain. 

"  UPON  the  whole  matter,  the  Committee  beg  leave  to  re- 
port it  as  their  opinion,  that  as  the  Americans  united  in  this 
arduous  conteft  upon  principles  of  common  intereft,  for  the  de- 
fence of  common  rights  and  privileges,  which  union  hath  been 
cemented  by  common  calamities  and  by  mutual  good  offices  and 
affection,  fo  the  great  caufe  for  which  they  contend,  and  in 
which  all  mankind  are  interefted,  muft  derive  its  fuccefs  from 
the  continuance  of  that  union.  Wherefore  any  man  or  body  of 
men,  who  mould  prefume  to  make  any  feparate  or  partial  con- 
vention or  agreement  with  Commiflioners  under  the  crown  of 
Great-Britain,  or  any  of  them,  ought  to  be  confidered  and  treat- 
ed as  open  and  avowed  enemies  of  thefe  United  States. 

"  And  further  your  Committee  beg  leave  to  report  it  as  their 
opinion,  That  thefe  United  States  cannot,  with  propriety,  hold 
any  conference  or  treaty  with  any  Commiflioners  on  the  part  of 
Great-Britain,  unlefs  they  mail,  as  a  preliminary  thereto,  either 
withdraw  their  fleets  and  armies,  or  elfe,  in  pofitive  and  exprefs 
terms,  acknowledge  the  Independence  of  the  faid  States. 

"AND  inafmuch  as  it  appears  to  be  the  defign  of  the  ene- 
mies of  thefe  States  to  lull  them  into  a  fatal  fecurity — to  the  end 
that  they  may  act  with  a  becoming  weight  and  importance,  it 
is  the  opinion  of  your  Committee,  that  the  feveral  States  be 
called  upon  to  ufe  the  moft  ilrenuous  exertions  to  have  their  re- 
fpective  quotas  of  continental  troops  in  the  field  as  foon  as  pof- 
fible,  and  that  all  the  militia  of  the  faid  States  be  held  in  rea- 
dinefs,  to  aft  as  occafion  may  require." 


[     40     ] 

they  produced.  In  thefe,  my  information  being  better 
than  the  Abbe's,  my  talk  was  eafy.  How  I  may  fucceed 
in  controverting  matters  of  fentiment  and  opinion,  with 
one  whom  years,  experience,  and  long  eftablifhed  repu- 
tation have  placed  in  a  fuperior  line,  I  am  lefs  confident 
in ;  but  as  they  fall  within  the  fcope  of  my  obfervations 
it  would  be  improper  to  pafs  them  over. 

FROM  this  part  of  the  Abbe's  work  to  the  latter  end, 
I  find  feveral  expreflions,  which  appear  to  me  to  ftart, 
with  a  cynical  complexion,  from  the  path  of  liberal  think- 
ing, or  at  leaft  they  are  fo  involved  as  to  lofe  many  of  the 
beauties  which  diftinguifti  other  parts  of  the  performance. 

THE  Abbe  having   brought  his  work  to  the  period 

when 

The  following  is  the  an/wer  of  Congrefs  to  the  fecond  applica- 
tion to  the  CommiJJioners : 

Turk-Town,  June  6,    1778. 
SIR, 

IH  A  V  E  had  the  honor  of  laying  your  letter  of  the  3d  in- 
ftant,  with  the  acts  of  the  Britiih  Parliament .  which  came 
inclofed,  before  Congrefs;  and  I  am  inflruded  to  acquaint  you, 
Sir,  that  they  have  already  exprefled  their  fentiments  upon  bills, 
not  effetitially  different  from  thofe  acts,  in  a  publication  of  the 
22d  of  April  lad. 

"Be  aflured,  Sir,  when  the  King  of  Great-Britain  fhall  be 
ferioufly  dtfpofed  to  put  an  end  to  the  unprovoked  and  cruel 
war  waged  againft  thefe  United  States,  Congrefs  will  readily 
attend  to  fuch  terms  of  peace,  as  may  confifl  with  the  honor  of 
independent  nations,  the  intereft  of  their  con  foments,  and  the 
facred  regard  they  mean  to  pay  to  treaties.  I  have  the  honor  to 
be,  Sir, 

&Qur  tnoft  obedient^  and 
\  moji  bumble  fervant, 

HENRY    L  A  u  R  E  N  s, 

Prefedent  of  Congrejs.1" 
His  Excellency 
St'r  Henry  Clinton,  AT,  B.  Philad. 


t  4'  ] 

when  the  treaty  of  alliance  between  France  and  the 
United  States  commenced,  proceeds  to  make  fome  remarks 
thereon. 

"  In  fhort,"  fays  he,  "  philofophy,  whofe  firft  fenti- 
"  ment  is  the  defire  to  fee  all  governments  juft  and  all 
<€  people  happy,  in  cafting  her  eyes  upon  this  alliance  of 
cc  a  monarchy,  with  a  people,  who  are  defending  their 
"  liberty,  is  curious  to  know  its  motive.  She  fees,  at  once, 
"  too  clearly ,  that  the  happinefs  of  mankind  has  no  part  in  it" 

WHATEVER  train  of  thinking  or  of  temper  the  Abbe 
might  be  in,  when  he  penned  this  expreffion,  matters  not. 
They  will  neither  qualify  the  fentiment,  nor  add  to  its  de- 
fect. If  right,  it  needs  no  apology ;  if  wrong,  it  merits 
no  excufe.  It  is  fent  into  the  world  as  an  opinion  of 
philofophy,  and  may  be  examined  without  regard  to  the 
author. 

IT  feems  to  be  a  defect,  connected  with  ingenuity,  that 
it  often  employs  itfelf  more  in  matters  of  curiofity,  than 
ufefulnefs.  Man  muft  be  the  privy  counfellor  of  fate,  or 
fomething  is  not  right.  He  muft  know  the  fprings,  the 
whys  and  wherefores  of  every  thing,  or  he  fits  down  unfa- 
tisfied.  Whether  this  be  a  crime,  or  only  a  caprice  of  hu- 
manity, I  am  not  enquiring  into.  I  mail  take  the  paflage 
as  I  find  it,  and  place  my  objections  againft  it. 

IT  is  not  fo  properly  the  motives  which  produced  the  al- 
liance, as  the  confequences  which  are  to  be  produced  from  //, 
that  mark  out  the  field  of  philofophical  reflection.  In  the 
one  we  only  penetrate  into  the  barren  cave  of  fecrecy, 
where  little  can  be  known,  and  every  thing  may  be  mif- 

F  conceived  5 


[     .42      ] 

conceived  ;  in  the  other,  the  mind  is  prefented  with  a  wide 
extended  profpe£t  of  vagetative  good,  and  fees  a  thoufand 
bleffings  budding  into  exiftence. 

BUT  the  expreflion,  even  within  the  compafs  of  the 
Abbe's  meaning,  fets  out  with  an  error,  becaufe  it  is  made 
to  declare  that,  which  no  man  has  authority  to  declare. 
Who  can  fay  that  the  happinefs  of  mankind  made  no  part 
of  the  motives  which  produced  the  alliance  ?  To  be  able  to 
declare  this,  a  man  muft  be  poflefled  of  the  mind  of  all 
the  parties  concerned,  and  know  that  their  motives  were 
fomething  elfe. 

IN  proportion  as  the  independence  of  America  became 
contemplated  and  underftood,  the  local  advantages  of  it  to 
the  immediate  a&ors,  and  the  numerous  benefits  it  pro- 
mifed  to  mankind,  appeared  to  be  every  day  encreafmg ; 
and  we  faw  not  a  temporary  good  for  the  prefent  race  on- 
ly, but  a  continued  good  to  all  pofterity  $  thefe  motives, 
therefore,  added  to  thofe  which  preceded  them,  became  the 
motives  on  the  part  of  America,  which  led  her  to  propofe 
and  agree  to  the  treaty  of  alliance,  as  the  beft  effectual 
method  of  extending  and  fecuring  happinefs;  and  there- 
fore, with  refpe£t  to  us,  the  Abbe  is  wrong. 

FRANCE,  on  the  other  hand,  was  fituated  very  differently 
to  America.  She  was  not  a&ed  upon  by  neceffity  to  feek 
a  friend,  and  therefore  her  motive  in  becoming  one,  has 
the  ftrongeft  evidence  of  being  good,  and  that  which  is  fo, 
muft  have  fome  happinefs  for  its  obje&.  With  regard  to 
herfelf,  fhe  faw  a  train  of  conveniences  worthy  her  atten- 
tion. i>y  leflening  the  power  of  an  enemy,  whom,  at 
the  fame  time,  fhe  fought  neither  to  defiroy  nor  diftrefs,. 

(he 


[    43     ] 

fhe  gained  an  advantage  without  doing  an  evil,  and  created 
to  herfelf  a  new  friend  by  aflbciating  with  a  country  in 
misfortune.  The  fprings  of  thought  that  lead  to  actions 
of  this  kind,  however  political  they  may  be,  are  never- 
thelefs  naturally  beneficient ;  for  in  all  caufes,  good  or 
bad,  it  is  neceflary  there  fhould  be  a  fitnefs  in  the  mind, 
to  enable  it  to  aft  in  character  with  the  object :  Therefore 
as  a  bad  caufe  cannot  be  profecuted  with  a  good  motive, 
fo  neither  can  a  good  caufe  be  long  fupported  by  a  bad 
one,  and  as  no  man  acts  without  a  motive,  therefore  in 
the  prefent  inftance,  as  they  cannot  be  bad,  they  muft  be 
admitted  to  be  good.  But  the  Abbe  fets  out  upon  fuch 
an  extended  fcale,  that  he  overlooks  the  degrees  by  which 
it  is  meafured,  and  rejects  the  beginning  of  good,  becaufe 
the  end  comes  not  at  once. 

IT  is  true  that  bad  motives  may  in  fome  degree  be 
brought  to  fupport  a  good  caufe  or  profecute  a  good  object; 
but  it  never  continues  long,  which  is  not  the  cafe  with 
France  ;  for  either  the  'object  will  reform  the  mind,  or 
the  mind  corrupt  the  object,  or  elfe  not  being  able,  either 
way,  to  get  into  unifon,  they  will  feparate  in  difguft : 
And  this  natural,  though  unperceived  progrefs  of  aflbcia- 
tion  or  contention  between  the  mind  and  the  object,  is  the 
fecret  caufe  of  fidelity  or  defection.  Every  object  a  man 
purfues,  is,  for  the  time,  a  kind  of  miftrefs  to  his  mind  : 
if  both  are  good  or  bad,  the  union  is  natural ;  but  if  they 
are  in  reverfe,  and  neither  can  feduce  nor  yet  reform  the 
other,  the  oppofition  grows  into  diflike  and  a  feparation 
follows. 

WHEN  the  caufe  of  America  firft  made  her  appearance 
on  the  ftage  of  the  univerfe,  there  were  many,  who,  in 

F'a  the 


[     44     ] 

the  ftile  of  adventurers  and  fortune  hunters,  were  dangling 
in  her  train,  and  making  their  court  to  her  with  every 
profeflion  of  honour  and  attachment.  They  were  loud  in 
her  praife  and  oftentatious  in  her  fervice.  Every  place 
echoed  with  their  ardour  or  their  anger,  and  they  feemed 
like  men  in  love.  But,  alas,  they  were  fortune  hunters. 
Their  expectations  were  excited,  but  their  minds  were 
unimprefied  ;  and  finding  her  not  to  their  purpofe,  nor 
themfelves  reformed  by  her  influence,  th?y  ceafed  their 
fuit,  and  in  fome  inftances  deferted  and  betrayed  her. 

THERE  were  others,  who  at  firft  beheld  her  with  in- 
difference, and  unacquainted  with  her  character  were  cau- 
tious of  her  company.  They  treated  her  as  one,  who, 
under  the  fair  name  of  liberty,  might  conceal  the  hideous 
figure  of  anarchy,  or  the  gloomy  monfter  of  tyranny. 
They  knew  not  what  fhe  was.  If  fair,  fhe  was  fair  in- 
deed. But  ftill  fhe  was  fufpe£ted,  and  though  born  among 
us  appeared  to  be  a  ftranger. 

ACCIDENT  with  fome,  and  curiofity  with  others, 
brought  on  a  diftant  acquaintance.  They  ventured  to 
look  at  her.  They  felt  an  inclination  to  fpeak  to  her. 
One  intimacy  led  to  another,  till  the  fufpicion  wore  away 
and  a  change  of  fentiment  ftole  gradually  upon  the  mind  ; 
and  having  no  felf  intereft  to  ferve,  no  paffion  of  difhonour 
to  gratify,  they  became  enamoured  of  her  innocence,  and 
unaltered  by  misfortune  or  uninflamed  by  fuccefs,  fhared 
with  fidelity  in  the  varieties  of  her  fate. 

THIS  declaration  of  the  Abbe's,  refpecling  motives, 
has  led  me  unintendedly  into  a  train  of  metaphyfical  rea- 
foning ;  but  there  was  no  other  avenue  by  which  it  could 

fo 


[    45     1 

fo  properly  be  approached.  To  place  prefumption  againft 
preemption,  aflertion  againft  aflertion,  is  a  mode  of  op- 
pofition  that  has  no  effect ;  and  therefore  the  more 
eligible  method  was  to  ftiew,  that  the  declaration  does 
not  correfpond  with  the  natural  progrefs  of  the  mind  and 
the  influence  it  has  upon  our  conduit.-— I  ihall  now  quit 
this  part  and  proceed  to  what  I  have  before  ftated,  namely, 
that  it  is  not  fo  properly  the  motives  which  produced  the 
alliance,  as  the  confequences  to  be  produced  from  it,  that 
mark  out  the  field  of  philofophical  reflection. 

IT  is  an  obfervation  I  have  already  made  in  fome  for- 
mer publication,  that  the  cir.cle  of  civilization  is  yet  in- 
complete. A  mutuality  of  wants  have  formed  the  indi- 
viduals of  each  country  into  a  kind  of  national  fociety, 
and  here  the  progrefs  of  civilization  has  ftopt.  For  it  is 
eafy  to  fee,  that  nations  with  regard  to  each  other  (not- 
withftanding  the  ideal  civil  law  which  every  one  explains 
as  it  fuits  him)  are  like  individuals  in  a  ftate  of  nature. 
They  are  regulated  by  no  fixt  principle,  governed  by  no 
compulfive  law,  and  each  does  independently  what  it 
pleafes  or  what  it  can. 

WERE  it  poffible  we  could  have  known  the  world 
when  in  a  ftate  of  barbarifm,  we  might  have  concluded 
that  it  never  could  be  brought  into  the  order  we  now  fee 
it.  The  untamed  mind  was  then  as  hard,  if  not  harder, 
to  work  upon  in  its  individual  ftate,  than  the  national 
mind  is  in  its  prefent  one.  Yet  we  have  feen  the  accom- 
plifhment  of  the  one,  why  then  fhould  we  doubt  that 
of  the  other. 

THERE  is  a  greater  fitnefs  in  mankind  to  extend  and 

compleat 


[    46    ] 

compleat  the  civilization  of  nations  with  each  other  at 
this  day,  than  there  was  to  begin  it  with  the  uncon- 
nected individuals  at  firft;  in  the  fame  manner  that  it  is 
fomewhat  eafier  to  put  together  the  materials  of  a  machine 
after  they  are  formed,  than  it  was  to  form  them  fiom  ori- 
ginal matter.  The  prefent  condition  of  the  world  dif- 
fering fo  exceedingly  from  what  it  formerly  was,  has 
given  a  new  caft  to  the  mind  of  man,  more  than  what  he 
appears  to  be  fenfible  of.  The  want  of  the  individual, 
which  firft  produced  the  idea  of  fociety,  are  now  aug- 
mented into  the  wants  of  the  nation,  and  he  is  obliged 
to  feek  from  another  country  what  before  he  fought  from 
the  next  perfon. 

LETTERS,  the  tongue  of  the  world,  have  in  fome  mea- 
fure  brought  all  mankind  acquainted,  and  by  an  exten- 
fion  of  their  ufes  are  every  day  promoting  fome  new 
friendfhip.  Through  them  diftant  nations  become  ca- 
pable of  converfation,  and  lofing  by  degrees  the  awk- 
wardnefs  of  ftrangers,  and  the  morofenefs  of  fufpicion, 
they  learn  to  know  and  underftand  each  other.  Science, 
the  partifan  of  no  country,  but  the '  beneficient  patro- 
nefs  of  all,  has  liberally  opened  a  temple  where  all  may 
meet.  Her  influence  on  the  mind,  like  the  fun  on  the 
chilled  earth,  has  long  been  preparing  it  for  higher  cul- 
tivation and  further  improvement.  The  philofopher  of 
one  country  fees  not  an  enemy  in  the  philofopher  of  an- 
other :  He  takes  his  feat  in  the  temple  of  fcience  and  afks 
not  who  fits  befide  him. 

THIS  was  not  the  condition  of  the  barbarian  world. 
Then  the  wants  of  man  were  few  and  the  objects  within 
his  reach.  While  he  could  acquire  thefe,  he  lived  in  a 

flat* 


[    47     1 

ftate  of  individual  independence,  the  confequence  of 
which  was,  there' were  as  many  nations  as  perfons,  each 
contending  with  the  other,  to  fecure  fomething  which  he 
had,  or  to  obtain  fomething  which  he  had  not.  The 
world  had  then  no  bufmefs  to  follow,  no  ftudies  to  exer- 
cife  the  mind.  Their  time  was  divided  between  floth  and 
fatigue.  Hunting  and  war  were  their  chief  occupations ; 
fleep  and  food  their  principal  enjoyments. 

Now  it  is  otherwife.  A  change  in  the  mode  of  life 
has  made  it  neceffary  to  be  bufy  j  and  man  finds  a  thou- 
fand  things  to  do  now  which  before  he  did  not.  Inftead 
of  placing  his  ideas  of  greatnefs  in.  the  rude  achievements 
of  thev  favage,  he  ftudies  arts,  fcience,  agriculture  and 
commerce,  the  refinements  of  the  gentleman,  the  prin- 
cipals of  fociety  and  the  knowledge  of  the  philofopher. 

THERE  are  many  things  which  in  themfelves  are  mo- 
rally neither  good  nor  bad,  but  they  are  productive  of 
confequences,  which  are  ftrongly  marked  with  one  or 
other  of  thefe  characters.  Thus  commerce,  though  in 
itfelf  a  moral  nullity,  has  had  a  confiderable  influence  in 
tempering  the  human  mind.  It  was  the  want  of  objects 
in  the  ancient  world,  which  occafioned  in  them  fuch  a 
rude  and  perpetual  turn  for  war.  Their  _time  hung  on 
their  hands  without  the  means  of  employment.  The  in- 
dolence they  lived  in  afforded  leafure  for  mifchief,  and 
being  all  idle  at  once,  and  equal  in  their  circumftances, 
they  were  eafily  provoked  or  induced  to  action. 

BUT  the  introduction  of  commerce  f urn ifhed  the  world 
with  objects,  which,  in  their  extent,  reach  every  man 
and  give  him  fomething  to  think  about  and  fomething  to 

do; 


[     48     ] 

do 3  by  thefe  his  attention  is  mechanically  drawn  from  the 
purfuits,  which  a  itate  of  indolence  and  an  unemployed 
mind  occafioned,  and  he  trades  with  the  fame  countries, 
which  former  ages,  tempted  by  their  productions,  and  too 
indolent  to  purchafe  them,  would  have  gone  to  war.  with. 

THUS,  as  I  have  already  obferved,  the  condition  of  the 
world  being  materially  changed  by  the,  influence  of  fcience 
and  commerce,  it  is  put  into  a  fitnefs  not  only  to  admit 
of,  but  to  defire,  an  extenfion  of  civilization.  The  prin- 
cipal and  almoft  only  remaining  enemy  it  now  has  to  en- 
counter, is  prejudice-,  for  it  is  evidently  the  intereft  of 
mankind  to  agree  and  make  the  beft  of  life.  The  world 
has  undergone  its  divifions  of  empire,  the  feveral  bounda- 
ries of  which  are  known  and  fettled.  The  idea  of  con- 
quering countries  like  the  Greeks  and  Romans  does  not 
now  exift ;  and  experience  has  exploded  the  notion  of 
going,  to  war  for  the  fake  of  profit.  In  fhort,  the  objects 
for  war  are  exceedingly  diminiftied,  and  there  is  now  left 
fcarcely  any  thing  to  quarrel  about,  but  what  arifes  from, 
that  demon  of  fociety,  prejudice,  and  the  confequent  fullen- 
nefs  and  untra&ablenefs  of  the  temper. 

THERE  is  fomething  exceedingly  curious  in  the  confti- 
tution  and  operation  of  prejudice.  It  has  the  fingular 
ability  of  accomodating  itfelf  to  all  the  poffible  varieties  of 
the  human  mind.  Some  paffions  and  vices  are  but  thinly 
fcattered  among  mankind,  and  find  only  here  and  there  a 
fitnefs  of  reception.  But  prejudice  like  the  fpider  makes 
every  where  its  home.  It  has  neither  tafte  nor  choice  of 
place,  and  all  that  it  requires  is  room.  There  is  fcarcely 
a  fituation,  except  fire  or  water,  in  which  a  fpjder  will  not 
live.  So  let  the  mind  be  as  naked,  as  the  walls  of  an  empty 

and 


[    49    ] 

and  forfaken  tenement,  gloomy  as  a  dungeon,  or  orna- 
mented with  the  richeft  abilities  of  thinking,  let  it  be  hot, 
cold,  dark  or  light,  lonely  or  inhabited,  ftill  prejudice, 
if  undifturbed,  will  fill  it  with  cobwebs,  arid  live,  like 
the  fpider,  where  there  feems  nothing  to  live  on.  If  the 
one  prepares  her  food  by  poifoning  it  to  her  palate  and 
her  ufe,  the  other  does  the  fame ;  and  as  feveral  of  our 
pafiions  are  ftrongly  charactered  by  the  animal  world,  pre- 
judice may  be  denominated  the  fpider  of  the  mind. 

PERHAPS  no  two  events  ever  united  fo  intimately  and 
forceably  to  combat  and  expel  prejudice,  as  the  Revolu- 
tion of  America  and  the  Alliance  with  France.  Their 
effects  are  felt,  and  their  influence  already  extends  as  well 
to  the  old  world  as  the  new.  Our  ftile  and  manner  of 
thinking  have  undergone  a  revolution,  more  extraordinary 
than  the  political  revolution  of  the  country.  We  fee  with 
other  eyes ;  we  hear  with  other  ears  ;  and  think  with  other 
thoughts,  than  thofe  we  formerly  ufed.  We  can  look 
back  on  our  own  prejudices,  as  if  they  had  been  the  pre- 
judices of  other  people.  We  now  fee  and  know  they 
were  prejudices  and  nothing  elfe,  and  relieved  from  their 
(hackles  enjoy  a  freedom  of  mind,  we  felt  not  before.  It 
was  not  all  the  argument,  however  powerful,  nor  all  the 
reafoning,  however  elegant,  that  could  have  produced 
this  change,  fo  neceflary  to  the  extenfion  of  the  mind, 
and  the  cordiality  of  the  world,  without  the  two  circum^ 
fiances  of  the  Revolution  and  the  Alliance. 

HAD  America  dropt  quietly  from  Britain,  no  material 
change,  in  fentiment,  had  taken  place.  The  fame  notions, 
prejudices,  and  conceits,  would  have  governed  in  both 
countries,  as  governed  them  before,  and  ftill  the  flaves  of 

G  error 


C     5°    ] 

error  and  education,  they  would  'have  travelled  on  in  the 
beaten  track  of  vulgar  and  habitual  thinking.  But  brought 
about  by  the  means  it  has  been,  both  with  regard  to  our- 
felves,  to  France,  and  to  England,  every  corner  of  the 
mind  is  fwept  of  its  cobwebs,  poifon,  and  duft,  and  made 
fit  for  the  reception  of  generous  happinefs, 

PER.HAPS  there  never  was  an  Alliance  on  a  broader 
bafis,  than  that  between  America  and  France,  and  the 
progrefs  of  it  is  worth  attending  to.  The  countries  had 
been  enemies,  not  properly  of  themfclves,  but  through 
the  medium  of  England.  They,  originally,  had  no  quar- 
rel with  each  other,  nor  any  caufe  for  one,  but  what  arofe 
from  the  intereft  of  England  and  her  arming  America 
againft  France.  At  the  fame  time,  the  Americans  at  a 
diftance  from,  and  unacquainted  with  the  world,  and 
tutored  in  all  the  prejudices  which  governed  thofe  who 
governed  them,  conceived  it  their  duty  to  adl:  as  they  were 
taught.  In  doing  this,  they  expended  their  fubftance  to 
make  conquefts,  not  for  themfelves  but  for  their  makers, 
who  in  return  treated  them  as  ilaves. 

A  long  fucceflion  of  infolent  feverity,  and  the  feparaticn 
finally  occafioned  by  the  commencement  of  hoftilities  at 
Lexington,  on  the  igth  of  April,  1775,  naturally  pro- 
duced a  new  difpofition  of  thinking.  As  the  mind  clofed 
itielf  towards  England,  it  opened  itfelf  towards  the  world, 
and  our  prejudices  like  our  oppreffions  underwent,  though 
lefs  obferved,  a  mental  examination ;  until  we  found  the 
former  as  inconfiftent  with  reafon  and  benevolence,  as  the 
latter  were  repugnant  to  our  civil  and  political  rights. 

WHILE  we  were  thus  advancing  by  degrees  into  the 
wide  field  of  extended  humanity,  the  alliance  with  France 

was 


[    5'     1 

was  concluded.  An  alliance  not  formed  for  the  meer 
purpofe  of  a  day,  but  on  juft  and  generous  grounds,  and 
with  equal  and  mutual  advantages  $  and  the  eafy  affection- 
ate manner  in  which  the  parties  have  fince  communi- 
cated, has  made  it  an  alliance  not  of  courts  only  but  of 
countries.  There  is  now  an  union  of  mind  as  well  as  of 
intereft ;  and  our  hearts  as  well  as  our  profperity  call  on 
us  to  fupport  it. 

THE  people  of  England  not  having  experienced  this 
change,  had  likewife  no  idea  of  it.  They  were  hugging 
to  their  bofoms  the  fame  prejudices  we  were  trampling 
beneath  our  feet ;  and  they  expected  to  keep  a  hold  upon 
America,  by  that  narrownefs  of  thinking,  which  Ameri- 
ca difdained.  What  they  were  proud  of,  we  difpifed  ;  and 
this  is  a  principal  caufe  why  all  their  negociations,  con- 
ftru&ed  on  this  ground,  have  failed.  We  are  now  really 
another  people,  and  cannot  again  go  back  to  ignorance 
and  prejudice.  The  mind  once  enlightened  cannot  again 
become  dark.  There  is  no  poffibility,  neither  is  there 
any  term  to  exprefs  the  fuppofition  by,  of  the  mind, 
««knowing  any  thing  it  already  knows  -t  and  therefore  all 
attempts  on  the  part  of  England,  fitted  to  the  former  habit 
of  America,  and  on  the  expectation  of  their  applying  now, 
will  be  like  perfuading  a  feeing  man  to  become  blind,  and 
a  fenfible  one  to  turn  an  idiot.  The  firft  of  which  is  un- 
natural, and  the  other  impoffible. 

As  to  the  remark  which  the  Abbe  makes  of  the  one 
country  being  a  monarchy  and  the  other  a  republic,  it 
can  have  no  efTential  meaning.  Forms  of  government 
have  nothing  to  do  with  treaties.  The  former  are  the  in- 

G  2  ternal 


[      52       ] 

ternal  police  of  the  countries  feverally ;  the  latter,  their 
external  police  jointly  :  and  fo  long  as  each  performs  its 
part,  we  have  no  more  right  or  bufmefs  to  know  how  the 
one  or  the  other  conducts  its  domeftic  affairs,  than  we 
have  to  inquire  into  the  private  concerns  of  a  family. 

BUT  had  the  Abbe  reflected  for  a  moment,  he  would 
have  feen,  that  courts  or  the  governing  powers  of  all 
countries,  be  their  forms  what  they  may,  are  relatively 
republics  with  each  other.  It  is  the  firft  and  true  prin- 
ciple of  alliancing.  Antiquity  may  have  given  precedence, 
and  power  will  naturally  create  importance,  but  their  equal 
right  is  never  diiputed.  It  may  likewife  be  worthy  of  re- 
marking, that  a  monarchical  country  can  fuffer  nothing  in 
its  popular  happinefs  by  allying  with  a  republican  one ; 
and  republican  governments  have  never  been  deftroyed  by 
their  external  connections,  but  by  fome  internal  convul- 
fion  or  contrivance.  France  has  been  in  alliance  with  the 
republic  of  SwifTerland  for  more  than  two  hundred  years, 
and  flill  Swiffcrland  retains  her  original  form  as  entire  as 
if  fhe  had  allied  with  a  republic  like  herfelf;  therefore 

thh  remark  of  the  Abbe  goes  to  nothing. Befides,  it  is 

b?ft  that  .mankind  mould  mix.  There  is  ever  fomething 
to  learn,  either  of  manners  or  principle ;  and  it  is  by  a 
free  communication,  without  regard  to  domeftic  matters, 
that  friendfliip  is  to  be  extended,  and  prejudice  deftroyed 
all  over  the  world. 

BUT  notwithftanding  the  Abbe's  high  profeffions  in 
favor  of  liberty,  he  appears  fometimes  to  forget  himfelf, 
or  that  his  theory  is  rather  the  child  of  his  fancy  than  of 
his  judgement :  For  in  almoft  the  fame  inftant  that  he 

cenfures 


[    53    ] 

cenfures  the  alliance  as  not  originally  or  fufficiently  cal- 
culated for  the  happinefs  of  mankind,  he,  by  a  figure  of 
implication,  accufes  France  for  having  adted  fo  generouf- 
]y  and  unrefervedly  in  concluding  it.  "Why  did  they, 
"  (fays  he,  meaning  the  Court  of  France)  tie  themfelves 
"  down  by  an  inconfiderate  treaty  to  conditions  with  the 
"  Congrefs,  which  they  might  themfelves  have  held  in 
*'  dependence  by  ample  and  regular  fupplies." 

WHEN  an  author  untertakes  to  treat  of  public  happi- 
nefs, he  ought  to  be  certain  that  he  does  not  miftake  paf- 
fion  for  right,  nor  imagination  for  principle.  Principle, 
Jike  truth,  needs  no  contrivance.  It  will  ever  tell  its 
own  tale,  and  tell  it  the  fame  way.  But  where  this  is  not 
the  cafe,  every  page  muft  be  watched,  recollected,  and 
compared,  like  an  invented  ftory. 

I  am  furprifed  at  this  pafTage  of  the  Abbe.  It  means 
nothing  or  it  means  ill  ;  and  in  any  cafe  it  fhews  the 
great  difference  between  fpeculative  and  practical  know- 
ledge. A  treaty  according  to  the  Abbe's  language  would 
have  neither  duration  nor  anv&ion ;  it  might  have 
lafted  to  the  end  of  the  war,  and  then  expired  with  it.— 
But  France,  by  a&ing  in  a  ftile  fuperior  to  the  little  po- 
litics of  narrow  thinking,  has  eftabliflied  a  generous  fame 
and  won  the  love  of  a  country  fhe  was  before  a  ftranger 
to.  She  had  to  treat  with  a  people  who  thought  as  nature 
taught  them;  and,  on  her  own  part,1  fhe  wifely  faw, 
there  was  no  prefent  advantage  to  be  obtained  by  unequal 
terms,  which  could  balance  the  more  lafting  ones  that 
might  flow  from  a  kind  and  generous  beginning. 

FROM  this  part  the  Abbe  advances  into  the  fecret  tranf- 
a&ions  of  the  two  Cabinets  of  Verfailles  and  Madrid  re- 

fpecling 


[     54     J 

fpefting  the  independence  of  America;  through  whick 
I  mean  not  to  follow  him.  It  is  a  circumftance  fuffici- 
cntly  ftriking  without  being  commented  on,  that  the  for- 
mer union  of  America  with  Britain  produced  a  power, 
which  in  her  hands,  was  becoming  dangerous  to  the  world: 
And  there  is  no  improbability  in  fuppofing,  that  had  the 
latter  known  as  much  of  the  ftrength  of  the  former,  be- 
fore (he  began  the  quarrel  as  fhe  has  known  fince,  that 
inftead  of  attempting  to  reduce  her  to  unconditional  fub- 
miflion,  (he  would  have  propofed  to  her  the  conqueft  of 
Mexico.  But  from  the  countries  feparately  Spain  has 
nothing  to  apprehend,  though  from  their  union  fhe  had 
more  to  fear  than  any  other  power  in  Europe. 

THE  part  which  I  fhall  more  particularly  confine  my- 

felf  to,  is  that  wherein  the  Abbe  takes  an  opportunity  of 

complimenting  the  Britifh  Miniftry  with  high  encomiums 

of  admiration,    on  their  rejecting  the  offered  mediation  of 

'  the  court  of  Madrid,  in  1779. 

IT  muft  be  remembered  that  before  Spain  joined  France 
in  the  war,  fhe  undertook  trje  office  of  a  mediator  and 
made  propofals  to  the  Britifh  King  arid  Miniftry  fo  ex- 
ceedingly favorable  to  their  intereft,  that  had  they  been 
accepted,  would  have  become  inconvenient,  if  not  inad- 
miflible,  to  America.  Thefe  propofals  were  neverthelefs 
rejected  by  the  Britifh  cabinet;  on  which  the  Abbe  fays,— 

<£  It  is  in  fuch  a  circumftance  as  this  ;  it  is  in  the  time 
"  when  noble  pride  elevates  the  foul  fuperior  to  all  terror; 
cc  when  nothing  is  feen  more  dreadful  than  the  fhame  of 
*'  receiving  the  law,  and  when  there  is  no  doubt  or  hefi- 
"  tation  which  to  chufe,  between  ruin  and  difhonour,- 

"  it 


[    55    ] 

"  it  is  then,  that  the  gfcatnefs  of  a  nation  is  difplayed. 
*'  I  acknowledge  however  that  men,  accuftomed  to  judge 
"  of  things  by  the  event,  call  great  and  perilous  refolu- 
"  tions,  heroifm  or  madnefs,  according  to  the  good  or 
"  bad  fuccefs  with  which  they  have  been  attended.  If 
"  then,  I  fhould  be  afked,  what  is  the  name  which  (hall 
*'  in  years  to  come  be  given  to  the  firmnefs,  which  was 
"  in  this  moment  exhibited  by  the  Englifh,  I  {hall  anfwer 
"  that  I  do  not  know.  But  that  which  it  deferves  I  know. 
"  I  know  that  the  annals  of  the  world  hold  out  to  us  but 
*6  rarely,  the  auguft  and  majeftic  fpe&acle  of  a  natioq, 
u  which  chufes  rather  to  renounce  its  duration  than  its 
"  glory." 

IN  this  paragraph  the  conception  is  lofty  and  the  ex- 
preflion  elegant ;  but  the  colouring  is  too  high  for  the 
original,  and  the  likenefs  fails  through  an  excefs  of  graces. 
To  fit  the  powers  of  thinking  and  the  turn  of  language 
to  the  fubje&,  fo  as  to  bring  out  a  clear  conclufion  that 
fhall  hit  the^point  in  queftion  and  nothing  elfe,  is  the  true 
criterion  of  writing.  But  the  greater  part  of  the  Abbe's 
writings  (if  he  will  pardon  me  the  remark)  appear  to  me 
uncentral  and  burthened  with  variety.  They  reprefent  a 
beautiful  wildernefs  without  paths ;  in  which  the  eye  is 
diverted  by  every  thing,  without  being  particularly  directed 
to  any  thing;  and  in  which  it  is  agreeable  to  be  loft,  and 
difficult  to  find  the  way  out. 

BEFORE  I  offer  any  other  remark  on  the'  fpirit  and 
compofition  of  the  above  paflage,  I  fhall  compare  it  with 
the  circumftance  it  alludes  to. 

THE  circumftance  then  docs  not  deferve  the  enco- 
mium. The  rejection  was  not  prompted  Jby  her  fortitude 

but 


[     56    ] 

but  her  vanity.  She  did  not  view  it  as  a  cafe  of  defpair  or 
even  of  extreme  danger,  and  confequently  the  determina- 
tion to  renounce  her  duration  rather  than  her  glory,  can- 
not apply  to  the  condition  of  her  mind.  She  had  then 
high  expectations  of  fubjugating  America,  and  had  no 
other  naval  force  again  ft  her  than  France  ;  neither  was  fhe 
certain  that  rejecting  the  mediation  of  Spain  would  com- 
bine that  power  with  France.  New  mediations  might 
arife  more  favorable  than  thofe  fhe  had  refufed.  But  if 
they  fhould  not,  and  Spain  fhould  join,  fhe  ftill  faw  that 
it  would  only  bring  out  her  naval  force  againft  France  and 
Spain,  which  was  not  wanted  and  could  not  be  employed 
againft  America,  and  habits  of  thinking  had  taught  her  to 
believe  herfelf  fupfrior  to  both. 

BUT  in  any  cafe  to  which  the  confequence  might  point, 
there  was  nothing  to  imprefs  her  with  the  idea  of  renounc- 
ing her  duration.  It  is  not  the  policy  of  Europe  to  fufFer 
the  extinction  of  any  power,  but  only  to  lop  off  or  prevent 
its  dangerous  encreafe.  She  was  like  wife  freed  by  fitua- 
tion  from  the  internal  and  immediate  horrors  of  invafion ; 
was  rolling  in  diflipation  and  looking  for  conquefts ;  and 
tho'  fhe  fufflred  nothing  but  the  expence  of  war,  fhe  ftill 
had  a  greedy  eye  to  magnificient  reimburfement. 

BUT  if  the  Abbe  is  delighted  with  high  and  ftriking 
fmgularities  of  character,  he  might,  in  America,  have 
.found  ample  field  for  encomium.  Here  was  a  people,  who 
could  not  know  what  part  the  world  would  take  for,  or 
againft  them  ;  and  who  were  venturing  on  an  untried 
fcheme.  in  oppofuion  to  a  power,  againft  which  more 
fornrdab'e  nations  had  failed.  They  had  every  thing  to 
leain  but  the  principles  which  fupported  them,  and  every 

thing 


[    57    ] 

thing  to  procure  that  was  neceflary  for  their  defence. 
They  have  at  times  feen  themfelves  as  low  as  diftrefs  could 
make  them,  without  fhowing  the  leaft  ftagger  in  their 
fortitude  ;  and  been  raifed  again  by  the  moil  unexpected 
events,  without  difcovering  an  unmanly  difcompofure  of 
joy.  To  hefitate  or  to  defpair  are  conditions  equally  un- 
known in  America.  Her  mind  was  prepared  for  every 
thing  ;  becaufe  her  original  and  final  refolution  of  fucceed- 
ing  or  periming  included  all  poflible  circumftances. 

THE  rejection  of  the  Britifh  propofitions  in  the  year 
1778,  circumftanced  as  America  was  at  that  time,  is  a 
far  greater  inftance  of  unfhaken  fortitude  than  the  refufal 
of  the  Spanifh  mediation  by  the  Court  of  London  :  And 
other  hiftorians,  befides  the  Abbe,  ftruck  with  the  vaftnefs 
of  her  conduct  therein,  have,  like  himfelf,  attributed  it  to 
a  circumftance,  which  was  then  unknown,  the  alliance 
with  France.  Their  error  fhews  their  idea  of  its  great- 
nefs  ;  becaufe,  in  order  to  account  for  it,  they  have  fought 
a  caufe  fuited  to  its  magnitude,  without  knowing  that  the 
caufe  exifted  in  the  principles  of  the  country.  *) 

*)   Extract  from    "  A  Jhort  review  oftbeprefent  reign"   in 
England. 

Page  45.    in  the  New  Annual  Re  gift  er  for  the  year  1780. 

"  n^HE  Commijffioners,  who,  in  confequence  of  Lord  North* s 
conciliatory  bills,  went  over  to  America,  to  propose  terms 
"  of  peace  to  the  colonies ,  were  wholly  unfuccefeful.  4  he  con- 
<c  cejfjions  which  formerly  would  have  been  received  with  the 
"  utmojl  gratitude,  were  rejected  with  difdain.  Now  was 
"  the  time  of  American  pride  and  haughtinefs.  It  is  probable, 
*'  however,  that  it  was  not  pride  and  haughtinefs  alone  that 
<c  diflated  the  Refolutlons  of  Congrefs,  but  a  diftruft  of  the 
*c  fmcerity  of  the  offers  of  Britain,  a  determination  not  to  give 
<c  up  their  independence,  and,  ABOVE  ALL,  THE  ENGAGE- 

"    MENTS     INTO     WHICH     THEY      HAD     ENTERED      BY 
"    THEIR  LATE  TREATY  WITH  FRANCE."   * 

H  BUT 


[    58     ] 

BUT  this  paflionate  encomium  of  the  Abbe  is  deferved- 
ly  fifbjed  to  moral  and  philofophical  objections.  It  is  the 
effufion  of  wild  thinking,  and  has  a  tendency  to  prevent 
that  humanity  of  reflection  which  the  criminal  conduct  of 
Britain  enjoins  on  her  as  a 'duty. —It  is  a  laudanum  to 

courtly  iniquity. It  keeps  in  intoxicated  fleep  the  con- 

fcience  of  a  nation  ;  and  more  mifchief  is  effected  by 
wrapping  up  guilt  in  fplendid  excufe,  than  by  directly 
patronizing  it, 

BRITAIN  is  now  the  only  country  which  holds  the 
world  in  difturbance  and  war ;  and  inftead  of  paying  com- 
pliments to  the  excefs  of  her  crimes,  the  Abbe  would  have 
appeared  much  more  in  character,  had  he  put  to  her,  or 
to  her  monarch,  this  ferious  queftion — 

ARE  there  not  miferies  enough  in  the  world,  too  diffi- 
cult to  be  encountered  and  too  pointed  to  be  borne,  with- 
out ftudying  to  enlarge  the  lift  and  arming  it  with  new 
deftruction  ?  Is  life  fo  very  long,  that  it  is  neceflary,  nay 
even  a  duty,  to  fhake  the  fand  and  haften  out  the  period 
of  duration  ?  Is  the  path  fo  elegantly  fmooth,  fo  decked 
on  every  fide  and  carpeted  with  joys,  that  wretchednefs  is 
wanted  to  enrich  it  as  a  foil  ?  Go  afk  thine  aching  heart 
when  forrow  from  a  thoufand  caufes  wound  it,  go  afk  thy 
fickened  felf  when  every  medicine  fails,  whether  this 
be  the  cafe  or  not  ? , 

QUITTING  my  remarks  on  this  head,  I  proceed  to 
another,  in  which  the  Abbe  has  let  loofe  a  vein  of  ill 
nature,  and,  what  is  flill  worfe,  ofinjuftiee. 

AFTER  cavilling  at  the  treaty,  he  goes  on  to  characterize 

the 


[    59    ] 

the  feveral  parties  combined  in  the  war — "  Is  it  poflible," 
fays  the  Abbe,  "  that  a  ftri&  union  (hould  long  fubfift 
<c  amongft  confederates  of  characters  fo  oppofite  as  the 
"  hafty,  light,  diftainful  Frenchman,  the  jealous,  haugh- 
"  ty,  fly,  flow,  circumfpe&ive  Spaniard,  and  the  Ame- 
"  rican,  who  is  fecretly  fnatching  looks  at  the  mother 
<c  country,  and  would  rejoice,  were  they  compatible  with 
**  his  independence,  at  the  difafters  of  his  allies." 

To  draw  foolifh  portraits  of  each  other,  is  a  mode  of 
attack  and  reprifal,  which  the  greater  part  of  mankind  are 
fond  of  indulging.  The  ferious  philofopher  fhould  be 
above  it,  more  efpecially  in  cafes  from  which  no  poffible 
good  can  arife,  and  mifchief  may,  and  where  no  received 
provocation  can  palliate  the  offence. — The  Abbe  might 
have  invented  a  difference  of  character  for  every  country 
in  the  world,  and  they  in  return  might  find  others  for  him, 
till  in  the  war  of  wit  all  real  character  is  loft.  The  plea- 
fantry  of  one  nation  or  the  gravity  of  another  may,  by  a 
little  penciling,  be  diftorted  into  whimfical  features,  and 
the  painter  become  as  much  laughed  at  as  the  painting; 

BUT  why  did  not  the  Abbe  look  a  little  deeper  and 
bring  forth  the  excellencies  of  the  feveral  parties.  Why 
did  he  not  dwell  with  pleafure  on  that  greatnefs  of  cha- 
racter, that  fuperiority  of  heart,  which  has  marked  the 
-condudt  of  France  in  her  conquefts,  and  which  has  forced 
an  acknowledgment  even  from  Britain. 

THERE  is  one  line,  at  leaft,  (and  many  others  might 
be  difcovered)  in  which  the  confederates  unite,  which  is, 
that  of  a  rival  eminence  in  their  treatment  of  their  ene- 
mies. Spaiq,  in  her  conqueft  of  Minorca  and  the  Bahama 

H  2  i  (lands 


[     60    ] 

iflands  confirms  this  remark.  America  has  been  invariable 
in  her  lenity  from  the  beginning  of  the  war,  notwith- 
ftanding  the  high  provocations  (he  has  experienced.  It  is 
England  only  who  has  been  infolent  and  cruel, 

BUT  why  muft  America  be  charged  with  a  crime  unde- 
ferved  by  her  conduct,  more  fo  by  her  principles,  and 
which,  if  a  fa6r.,  would  be  fatal  to  her  honor.  I  mean 
that  of  want  of  attachment  to  her  allies,  or  rejoicing  in 
their  difafters.  She,  it  is  true,  has  been  afliduous  in 
ihewing  to  the  world  that  fhe  was  not  the  aggreflbr  to- 
wards England,  that  the  quarrel  was  not  of  her  feeking, 
or,  at  that  time,  even  of  her  wifhing.  But  to  draw  in- 
ferences from  her  candour,  and  even  from  her  jufti- 
fication,  to  flab  her  character  by,  and  I  fee  nothing  elfe 
from  which  they  can  be  fuppofed  to  be  drawn,  is  unkind 
and  unjuft. 

DOES  her  reje£Hon  of  the  Britifh  propofitions  in  1779, 
before  fhe  knew  of  any  alliance  with  France,  correfpond 
with  the  Abbe's  defcription  of  her  mind  ?  does  a  fmgle  in- 
ftance  of  her  conduct  fmce  that  time  juftify  it?— But 
there  is  a  ftill  better  evidence  to  apply  to,  which  is,  that 
of  all  the  mails,  which  at  different  times  have  been  way 
laid  on  the  road,  in  divers  parts  of  America,  and  taken 
and  carried  into  New- York,  and  from  which  the  moft 
fecret  and  confidential  private  letters,  as  well  as  thofe 
from  authority,  have  been  publifhed,  not  one  of  them,  I 
repeat  it,  not  a  fmgle  one  of  them,  gives  countenance  to 
fuch  a  charge. 

THIS  is  not  a  country  where  men  are  under  govern- 
ment reftraint  in  fpeaking ;  and  if  there  is  any  kind  of 

reftraint 


[    6i     ] 

reftraint,  it  arifes  from  a  fear  of  popular  refentment, 
Now,  if  nothing  in  her  private  or  public  correfpondence 
favours  fuch  a  fuggeftion,  and  if  the  general  difpofition  of 
the  country  is  fuch  as  to  make  it  unfafe  for  a  man  to  (hew 
an  appearance  of  joy  at  any  difafter  to  her  ally,  on  what 

grounds,   I  afk,    can  the  accufation  ftand.     What  com- 
7  ' 

pany  the  Abbe  may  have  kept  in  France,  we  cannot  know ; 
but  this  we  know,  that  the  account  he  gives  does  not  ap- 
ply to  America. 

HAD  the  Abbe  been  in  America  at  the  time  the  news 
arrived  of  the  difafter  of  the  fleet  under  Count  de  Grade, 
in  the  Weft-Indies,  he  would  have  feen  his  vaft  miftake. 
Neither  do  I  remember  any  inftance,  except  the  lofs  of 
Charleftown,  in  which  the  public  mind  fuffered  more  fe- 
vere  and  pungent  concern,  or  underwent  more  agitations 
of  hope  and  apprehenfion  as  to  the  truth  or  fallhood  of  the 
report.  Had  the  lofs  been  all  our  own  it  could  not  have 
had  a  deeper  effect,  yet  it  was  not  one  of  thefe  cafes 
which  reached  to  the  independence  of  America. 

IN  the  geographical  account  which  the  Abbe  gives  of 
the  Thirteen  States,  he  is  fo  exceedingly  erroneous,  that 
to  attempt  a  particular  refutation,  would  exceed  the  limits 
I  have  prefcribed  to  myfelf.  And  as  it  is  a  matter  neither 
political,  hiftorical,  nor  fentimental,  and  which  can  al- 
waysvbe  contradicted  by  the  extent  and  natural  circum- 
ftances  of  the  country,  I  fhall  pafs  it  over ;  with  this  ad- 
ditional remark,  that  I  never  yet  faw  an  European  defcrip- 
tion  of  America  that  was  true,  neither  can  any  perfon  gain 
a  juft  idea  of  it,  but  by  coming  to  it. 

THOUGH  I  have  already  extended  this  Jetter  beyond 

what 


what  I  at  firft  propofed,  I  am,  neverthelefs,  obliged  to 
omit  many  obfervations,  I  originally  defigned  to  have 
made.  I  wifh  there  hau  been  no  occafiou  for  making 
any.  But  the  wrong  ideas  which  the  Abbe's  work  had  a 
tendency  to  excite,  and  the  prejudicial  impreflions  they 
might  make,  muft  be  an  apology  for  my  remarks,  and  the 
freedom  with  which  they  are  done. 

I  obferve  the  Abbe  has  made  a  fort  of  epitome  of  a  con- 
fiderable  part  of  the  pamphlet  Common  Senfe>  and  intro- 
duced it  in  that  form  into  his  publication.  But  there  are 
other  places  where  the  Abbe  has  borrowed  freely  from 
the  fame  pamphlet  without  acknowledging  it.  The  dif- 
ference between  fociety  and  government,  with  which  the 
pamphlet  opens,  is  taken  from  it,  and  in  fome  ex- 
preflions  almoft  literally,  into  the  Abbe's  work  as  if  ori- 
ginally his  own  ;  and  through  the  whole  of  the  Abbe's 
remarks  on  this  head,  the  idea  in  Common  Senfe  is  fo 
clofely  copied  and  purfued,  that  the  difference  is  only  in 
words,  and  in  the  arrangement  of  the  thoughts,  and  not 

in  the  thoughts  themfelves.  * 

BUT 


*  COMMON  SENSE.  ABBE   RAYNAL. 

"  Some  writers  have  fo  con-          "  Care  muft  be   taken  not 

founded  fociety  with  govern-  to  confound    together   fociety 

ment,  as  to  leave  little  or  no  with  government.    That  they 

diftin&ion     betwe'en      them  ;  may  be  known  diftin&ly,  their 

whereas,  they  are  not  only  dif-  origin  fhould  be  confidered" 
rerent,  but  have  different  ori- 
gins."   , 

"Society  is  produced  by  our          ef  Society  originates  in  the 

wants  and  governments  by  our  wants  of  men,  government  in 

wickednefs  ;    the  former  pro-  their  vices.     Society  tends  al- 

motes  our  happinefs  po/iti<vely,  ways   to    good  ;     government 

by  uniting  our  affections,  the  ought  always  to   tend  to  the 

latter  negatively,  by  retraining  repreffing  of  evil.'* 
our  vices." 


BUT  as  it  is  time  I  fhould  come  to  a  conclufion  of  my 
letter,  I  (hall  forbear  all  further  obfervations  on  the  Abbe's 

work, 


In  the  following  paragraphs  there  is  lefs  likenefs  in  the  lan- 
guage•,  but  the  ideas  in  the  one  are  evidently  copied  from 


the  other. 

COMMON  SENSE. 
"  In  order  to  gain  a  clear 
and  juil  idea  of  the  defign  and 
end  of  government,  let  us  fup- 
pofe  a  fmall  number  of  per- 
fons,  meeting  in  fome  feque- 
ftered  part  of  the  earth  uncon- 
nected with  the  reft ;  they  will 
then  reprefent  the  peopling  of 
any  country  or  of  the  world. 
In  this  ftate  of  natural  liberty, 
fociety  will  be  our  firft  thought. 
A  thoufand  motives  will  excite 
them  thereto.  The  ftrength 
of  one  man  is  fo  unequal  to 
his  wants,  and  his  mind  fo  un- 
fitted for  perpetual  folitude, 
that  he  is  foon  obliged  to  feek 
afliftance  of  another,  who,  in 
his  turn,  requires  the  fame. 
Four  or  five  united  would  be 
able  to  raife  a  tolerable  dwell- 
ing in  the  midft  of  a  wilder- 
nefs ;  but  one  man  might  la- 
bour out  the  common  period 
of  life,  without  accomplishing 
any  thing  j  when  he  had  felled 
his  timber,  he  could  not  re- 
move it,  nor  erect  it  after  it 
was  removed  ;  hunger,  in  the 
mean  time  would  urge  him 
from  his  work,  and  every  dif- 
ferent want  call  him  a  different 
way.  Difeafe,  nay  even  mif- 
fortune,  would  be  death ;  for 
though' neither  might  be  im- 
mediately mortal,  yet  either 
of  them  would  difable  him 


ABBE  RAYNAL. 
"  Man,  thrown,  as  it  were, 
by  chance  upon  the  globe, 
furrounded  by  all  the  evils  of 
nature,  obliged  continually  to 
defend  and  protect  his  life 
againfl  the  ftorms  and  tempefts 
of  the  air,  againft  the  inunda- 
tions of  water,  againft  the  fire 
of  vulcanoes,  againft  the  in- 
temperance of  frigid  and  torrid 
zones,  againft  the  fterrility  of 
the  earth  which  refufes  him 
ailment,  or  its  baneful  fecun- 
dity, which  makes  poifon 
fpring  up  beneath  his  feet ; 
in  fhort,  againft  the  claws  and 
teeth  of  favage  beafts,  who 
difpute  with  him  his  habita- 
tion and  his  prey,  and,  at- 
tacking his  perfort,  feem  re- 
folved  to  render  themfelves 
rulers  of  this  globe,  of  which 
he  thinks  'himfelf  to  be  the 
m after :  Man,  in  this  ftate, 
alone  and  abandoned  to  him- 
felf, could  do  nothing  for  his 
prefervation.  It  was  neceffary, 
therefore,  that  he  mould  unite 
himfelf,  and  aflbciate  with  his 
like,  in  order  to  bring  together 
their  ftrength  and  intelligence 
in  common  ftock.  It  is  by  this 
union  that  he1  has  triumphed 
over  fo  many  evils,  that  he 
has  famioned  this  globe  to  his 
ufe,  reftrained  the  rivers,  fub- 
jugated  the  feas,  infured  his 


[     64    ] 

Work,  and  take  a  concife  view  of  the  ftate  of  public  affairs^ 
fince  the  time  in  which  that  performance  was  pubh'fhed. 

«  i 

A  mind  habited  to  actions  of  meannefs  and  injuftice, 

commits  them  without  reflection,  or  with  a  very  partial 
one  ;  for  on  what  other  ground  than  this,  can  we  account 
for  the  declaration  of  war  againft  the  Dutch.  To  gain 
an  idea  of  the  politics  which  actuated  the  Britifh  Miniftry 
to  this  meafure,  we  muft  enter  into  the  opinion  which 
they,  and  the  Englifh  in  general,  had  formed  of  the  temper 
of  the  Dutch  nation  ;  and  from' thence  infer  what  their 
expectation  of  the  confequences  would  be. 

COULD 


COMMON  SENSE. 
from  living,  and  reduce  him 
to  a  ftate  in  which  he  might 
rather  be  faid  to  perifh  than  to 
die.— Thus  neceffity,  like  a 
gravitating  power,  would  form 
our  newly  arrived  emigrants 
into  fociety,  the  reciprocal 
bleflings  of  which,  would  fu- 
percede  and  render  the  obliga- 
tions of  law  and  government 
unneceflary,  while  they  re- 
mained perfectly  juft  to  each 
other.  But  as  nothing  but 
heaven  is  impregnable  to  vice, 
it  will  unavoidably  happen, 
that  in  proportion  as  they  fur- 
mount  the  firft  difficulties  of 
emigration,  which  bound  them 
together  in  a  common  caufe, 
they  will  begin  to  relax  in 
their  duty  and  attachment  to 
each  other,  and  this  remirThefs 
will  point  out  the  neceffity  of 
eftablifhing  fome  form  of  go- 
vernment to  fupply  the  deleft 
of  moral  virtue." 


ABBE  RAYNAL. 
fubfiftence,  conquered  a  part 
of  the  animals  in  obliging 
them  to  ferve  him,  and  driven 
others  far  from  his  empire,  to 
the  depth  of  deferts  or  of 
woods,  where  their  number 
diminimes  from  age  to  age. 
What  a  man  alone  would  not 
have  been  able  to  effect,  men 
have  executed  in  concert ;  and 
altogether  they  preferve  their 
work.  Such  is  the  origin, 
fuch  the  advantages,  and  the 
end  of  fociety. — Government 
owes  its  birth  to  the  neceffity 
of  preventing  and  repreffing 
the  injuries  which  the  aflbci- 
ated  individuals  had  to  fear 
from  one  another.  It  is  the 
centinel  who  watches,  in  order 
that  the  common  labours  be 
not  difturbed." 


[    65    ] 

COULD  they  have  imagined  that  Holland  would  have 
ferioufly  made  a  common  caufe  with  France,  Spain,  and 
America,  the  Britifh  Miniftry  would  nevdr  have  dared  to 
provoke  them.  It  would  have  been  a  madnefs  in  politics 
to  have  done  fo ;  unlefs  their  views  were  to  haften  on  a 
period  of  fuch  emphatic  diftrefs,  as  fhould  juftify  the  con- 
ceffions  which  they  faw  they  muft  one  day  or  other  make 
to  ^the  world,  and  for  which  they  wanted  an  apology  to 
themfelves. — -There  is  a  temper  in  fome  men  which  feeks 
a  pretence  for  fubmiflion.  Like  a  (hip  difabled  in  action, 
and  unfited  to  continue  it,  it  waits  the  approach  of  a  ftill 
larger  one  to  ftrike  to,  and  feels  relief  at  the  opportunity. 
Whether  this  is  greatnefs  or  littlenefs  of  mind,  I  am  not 
enquiring  into.  I  fhould  fuppofe  it  to  be  the  latter,  be- 
caufe  it  proceeds  from  the  want  "bf  knowing  how  to  bear 
misfortune  in  its  original  ftate. 

BUT  the  fubfequent  conduct  of  the  Britifli  cabinet  has 
fhewn  that  this  was  not  their  plan  of  politics,  and  con- 
fequently  their  motives  muft  be  fought  for  in  another  line. 

THE  truth  is,  that  the  Britifh  had  formed  a  very 
humble  opinion  of  the  Dutch  nation.  They  looked  on 
them  as  a  people  who  would  fubmit  to  any  thing ;  thaj: 
they  might  infult  them  as  they  liked,  plunder  them  as  they 
pleafed,  and  ftill  the  Dutch  dared  not  to  be  provoked. 

IF  this  be  taken  as  the  opinion  of  the  Britifh  cabinet, 
the  meafure  is  eafily  accounted  for ;  becaufe  it  goes  on 
the  fuppofition,  that  when,  by  a  declaration  of  hoftilities, 
they  had  robbed  the  Dutch  of  fome  millions  fterling,  (and 
to  rob  them  was  popular)  they  could  make  peace  with 
them  again  whenever  they  pleafed,  and  on  almoft  any 
terms  the  Britifh  Miniftry  fhould  propofe.  And  no  fooner 

k    was 


[    66    ] 

was  the  plundering  committed,  than  the  accomodation  was 
fet  on  foot,  and  failed. 

WHEN  once  the  mind  lofes  the  fenfe  of  its  own  digni- 
ty, it  lofes,  likewife,  the  ability  of  judging  of  it  in  another. 
And  the  American  war  has  thrown  Britain  into  fuch  a 
variety  of  abfurd  fituations,  that,  arguing  from  herfelf, 
fhe  fees  not  in  what  conduct  national  dignity  confifts  in 
other  countries.  From  Holland  (he  expected  duplicity 
and  fubmiilion,  and  this  miftake  arofe  from  her  having 
acted,  in  a  number  of  inftances  during  the  prefent  war, 
the  fame  character  herfelf. 

To  be  allied  to,  or  connected  with  Britain,  feems  to  be 
an  unfafe  and  impolitic  fituation.  Holland  and  America  arc 
inftances  of  the  reality  of  this  remark.  Make  thofe  coun- 
tries the  allies  of  France  or  Spain,  and  Britain  will  court 
them  with  civility,  and  treat  them  with  refpect ;  make 
them  her  own  allies,  and  (he  will  infult  and  plunder  them. 
In  the  firft  cafe,  (he  feels  fome  apprehenfions  at  offending 
them,  becaufe  they  have  Support  at  hand  j  in  the  latter, 
thofe  apprehenfions  do  not  exift.  Such,  however,  has 
hitherto  been  her  conduct. 

ANOTHER  meafure  which  has  taken  place  fmce  the 
publication  of  the  Abbe's  work,  and  likewife  fmce  the 
time. of  my  beginning  this  letter,  is  the  change  in  the 
Britifh  miniftry.  What  line  the  new  cabinet  will  pur- 
fue  refpecting  America,  is  at  this  time  unknown  ;  neither 
is  it  very  material,  unlefs,  they  are  ferioufly  difpofed  to  a 
general' and  honorable  peace. 

REPEATED  experience  has  Ihevvn,  not  only  the  im- 
practicability of  conquering  America,  but  the  ftill  higher 
impoflibility  of  conquering  her  mind,  or  recalling  her  back 


to 


to  her  former  condition  of  thinking.  Since  the  commence- 
ment of  the  war,  which  is  now  approaching  to  eight  years, 
thoufands  and  tens  of  thoufands  have  advanced,  and  are 
daily  advancing  into  the  firft  ftage  of  manhood,  who, 
know  nothing  of  Britain  but  as  a  barbarous  enemy,  and 
to  whom  the  independence  of  America  appears  as  much 
the  natural  and  eftablifhed  government  of  the  country,  as 
that  of  England  does  to  an  Englishman.  And  on  the 
other  hand,  thoufands  of  the  aged,  who  had  Britifh  ideas, 
have  dropped,  and  are  daily  dropping,  from  the  ftage  of 
bufmefs  and  life.  The  natural  progrefs  of  generation  and 
decay  operates  every  hour  to  the  difadvantage  of  Britain. 
Time  and  death,  hard  enemies  to  contend  with,  fight  con- 
ftantly  againft  her  intereft  j  and  the  bills  of  mortality,  in 
every  part  of  America,  are  the  thermometers  of  her  decline. 
The  children  in  the  ftreets  are  from  their  cradle  bred  to 
confider  her  as  their  only  foe.  They  hear  of  her  cruel- 
ties; of  their  fathers,  uncles,  and  kindred  killed  ;  they 
fee  the  remains  of  burnt  and  deftroyed  houfes,  and  the 
common  tradition  of  the  fchool  they  go  to,  tells  them, 
tbofe  things  were  done  by  the  Britijh. 

THESE  are  circumftances  which  the  mere  Englifti  ftate 
politician,  who  confiders  man  only  in  a  ftate  of  manhood, 
does  not  attend  to.  He  gets  entangled  with  parties  co- 
eval or  equal  with  himfelf  at  home,  and  thinks  not  how 
faft  the  rifing  generation  in  America  is  growing  beyond 
his  knowledge  of  them,  or  they  of  him.  In  a  few  years  all 
perfonal  remembrance  will  be  loft,  and  who  is  King  or 
Minifter  in  England,  will  be  little  known  and  fcarcely 
enquired  after. 

THE  new  Britifli  adminiftration  is  compofed  of  perfons 
who  have  ever  been  againft  the  war,  and  who  have  con- 
ftantly  reprobated  all  the  violent  meafures  of  the  former 

I  2  one. 


[     68     ] 

one.  They  confidered  the  American  war  as  deftru&ive 
to  themfelves,  and  oppofed  it  on  that  ground.  But  what 
are  thefe  things  to  America  ?  She  has  nothing  to  do  with 
Englifh  parties.  The  ins  and  the  outs  are  nothing  to  her. 
It  is  the  whole  country  fhe  is  at  war  with,  or  muft  be  at 
peace  with, 

WERE  every  Minifter  in  England  a  Chatham^  it  would 
now  weigh  little  or  nothing  in  the  fcale  of  American 
politics.  Death  has  preferved  to  the  memory  of  this 
ftatefman,  that  fame,  which  he,  by  living,  would  have 
loft.  His  plans  and  opinions,  towards  the  latter  part  of 
his  life,  would  have  been  attended  with  as  many  evil  con- 
fequences,  and  as  much  reprobated  here,  as  thofe  of  Lord 
North ;  and,  confidering  him  a  wife  man,  they  abound 
with  inconfiftences  amounting  to  abfurdities. 

IT  has  apparently  been  the  fault  of  many  in  the  late 
minority,  to  fuppofe,  that  America  would  agree  to  certain 
terms  with  them,  were  they  in  place,  which  fhe  would 
not  ever  Men  to  from  the  then  Adminiftration.  This 
idea  can  anfvver  no  other  purpofe  than  to  prolong  the  war; 
and  Britain  may,  at  the  expence  of  many  more  millions, 
learn  the  fatality  of  fuch  miftakes.  If  the  new  miniftry 
wifely  avoid  this  hopelefs  policy,  they  will  prove  themfelves 
better  pilots,  and  wifer  men,  than  they  are  conceived  to 
be  j  for  it  is  every  day  expected  to  fee  their  bark  flrikc 
upon  fome  hidden  rock  and  go  to  pieces, 

BUT  there  is  a  line  in  which  they  may  be  great.  A  more 
brilliant  opening  needs  not  to  prefent  itfelf  \  and  it  is 
fuch  a  one,  as  true  magnanimity  would  improve,  and 
humanity  rejoice  in. 


A  total  reformation  is  wanted  in  England.  She  wants 
an  expanded  mind,— an  heart  which  embraces  the  univerfe. 
Inftead  of  {hutting  herfelf  up  in  an  ifland,  and  quarrelling 
with  the  world,  (he  wouM  derive  more  lading  happinefs, 
and  acquire  more  real  riches,  by  generoufly  mixing  with 
it,  and  bravely  faying,  I  am  the  enemy  of  none.  It  is 
not  now  a  time  for  little  contrivances  or  artful  politics. 
The  European  world  is  too  experienced  to  be  impofed 
upon,  and  America  too  wife  to  be  duped.  It  muft  be 
fomething  new  and  mafterly  that  muft  fucceed.  The  idea 
of  feducing  America  from  her  independence,  or  corrupting 
her  from  her  alliance,  is  a  thought  too  little  for  a  great 
mind,  and  impoffiblc  for  any  honeft  one,  to  attempt. 
Whenever  politics  are  applied  to  debauch  mankind  from 
their  integrity,  and  diffolve  the  virtues  of  human  nature, 
they  become  deteftable;  and  to  be  a  ftatefman  upon  this 
plan,  is  to  be  acommiffioned  villain.  He  who  aims  at  it, 
leaves  a  vacancy  in  his  character,  which  may  be  filled  up 
with  the  worft  of  epithets. 

IF  the  difpofition  of  England  (hould  be  fuch,  as  not  to 
agree  to  a  general  and  honorable  peace,  and  that  the  war 
niuft,  at  all  events,  continue  longer,  I  cannot  help 
wifhing,  that  the  alliances  which  America  has  or  may  en- 
ter into,  may  become  the  only  objects  of  the  war.  She 
wants  an  opportunity  of  {hewing  to  the  world,  that  {he 
holds  her  honor  as  dear  and  facred  as  her  independence, 
and  that  {he  will  in  no  fituation  forfake  thofe,  whom 
no  negociations  could  induce  to  forfake  her.  Peace  to 
every  reflective  mind,  is  a  defirable  object ;  but  that  peace 
which  is  accompanied  with  a  ruined  character,  becomes  a 
crime  to  the  feducer,  and  a  curfe  upon  the  feduced. 

BUT  where  is  the  impoffibility  or  eveathe  great  difficul- 
ty 


[    70    ] 

ty  of  England  forming  a  friendfhip  with  France  and  Spain, 
and  making  it  a  national  virtue  to  renounce  for  ever  thofe 
prejudiced  inveteracies  it  has  been  her  cuftom  to  cherifh  ; 
and  which,  while  they  ferve  to  fink  her  with  an  encreafmg 
enormity  of  debt,  by  involving  her  in  fruitlefs  wars,  be- 
come likewife  the  bane  of  her  repofe,  and  the  deftru&ion 
of  her  manners.  We  had  once  the  fetters  that  fhe  has  now, 
but  experience  has  (hewn  us  the  miftake,  and  thinking 
juftly  has  fet  us  right. 

THE  true  idea  of  a  great  nation  is  that  which  extends 
and  promotes  the  principles  of  univerfal  fociety.  Whofe 
mind  rifes  above  the  atmofpheres  of  local  thoughts,  and 
confiders  mankind,  of  whatever  nation  or  profeflion  they 
may  be,  as  the  work  of  one  Creator.  The  rage  for  con- 
queft  has  had  its  fafhion,  and  its  day.  Why  may  not  the 
amiable  virtues  have  the  fame  ?  The  Alexanders  and 
Caefars  of  antiquity  have  left  behind  them  their  monu- 
ments of deftru&ion,  and  are  remembered  with  hatred; 
while  thefe  more  exalted  characters,  who  firfr.  taught  fo- 
ciety and  fcience,  are  bleft  with  the  gratitude  of  every  age 
and  country.  Of  more  ufe  was  one  philofopher,  though 
a  heathen,  to  the  world,  than  all  the  heathen  conquerors 
that  ever  exifred. 

SHOULD  the  prefent  revolution  be  deftinguifhed  by 
opening  a  new  fyflem  of  extended  civilization,  it  will  re- 
ceive from  heaven  the  higheft  evidence  of  approbation  ;  and 
as  this  is  a  fubjedl:  to  which  the  Abbe's  powers  are  fo  emi- 
nently fuited,  I  recommend  it  to  his  attention,  with  the  af- 
fection of  a  friend,  and  the  ardour  of  a  univerfal  citizen, 


POSTSCRIPT. 


SINCE  clofing  the  foregoing  letter,  fome  intima- 
tions,   refpecting  a  general  peace,   have  made  their 
way  to  America.    On  what  authority  or  foundation 
they  ftand,  or  how  near  or  remote  fuch  an  event  may  be, 
are  circumftances  I  am  not  inquiring  into.     But  as  the 
fubject  muft  fooner  or  later  become  a  matter  of  ferious 
attention,  it  may  not  be  improper,  even  at  this  early  pe- 
riod, candidly  to  investigate  fome  points  that  are  connected 
with  it,  or  lead  towards  it. 

THE  independence  of  America  is  at  this  moment  as 
firmly  eftablifhed  as  that  of  any  other  country  in  a  ftate 
of  war.  It  is  not  length  of  time,  but  power  that  gives 
{lability.  Nations  at  war  know  nothing  of  each  other  on 
the  fcore  of  antiquity.  It  is  their  prefent  and  immediate 
ftrength,  together  with  their  connections,  that  muft  fup- 
port  them.  To  which  we  may  add,  that  a  right  which 
originated  to-day,  is  as  much  a  right,  as  if  it  had  the 
fanction  of  a  thoufand  years  ;  and  therefore  the  indepen- 
dence and  prefent  governments  of  America  are  in  no  more 
danger  of  being  fubverted,  becaufe  they  are  modern,  than 
that  of  England  is  fecure,  becaufe  it  is  ancient. 

THE  politics  of  Britain,  fo  far  as  they  refpected  Ame- 
rica, were  originally  conceived  in  idiotifm,  and  acted  in 
madnefs.  There  is  not  a  ftep  which  bears  the  fmalleft 
trace  of  rationality.  In  her  management  of  the  war,  ihe 
has  laboured  to  be  wretched,  and  ftudied  to  be  hated  ;  and 
in  all  her  former  proportions  for  accomodation,  fhe  has 
difcovered  a  total  ignorance  of  mankind,  and  of  thofe  na- 
tural and  unalterable  fenfations  by  which  they  are  fo  ge- 
nerally governed.  How  fhe  may  conduct  herfelf  in  the 
prefent  or  future  bufmefs  of  negociating  a  peace,  is  yet  to 
be  proved. 

He  is  a  weak  politician  who  does  not  underftand  human 
nature,  and  penetrate  into  the  effect  which  meafures  of 
government  will  have  upon  the  mind.  All  the  mifcar- 
riages  of  Britain  have  arifen  from  this  defect.  The  former 
Miniftry  acted  as  if  they  fuppofed  mankind  to  be  without 
a  mind\  and  the  prefent  Miniftry,  as  if  America  was  with- 
out a  memory.  The  one  muft  have  fuppofed  we  were  in- 
capable of  feeling ;  and  the  other,  that  we  could  not  re- 
member injuries. 

K  THERE 


C    72    ] 

THERE  is  likewife  another  line  in  which  politicians 
miftake,  which  is  that  of  not  rightly  calculating,  or  rather 
of  misjudging,  the  confequence  which  any  given  circum- 
ihmce  will  produce.  Nothing  is  more  frequent,  as  well  in 
common  as  in  political  life,  than  to  hear  people  complain, 
that  fuch  or  fuch  means  produced  an  event  direclly  con- 
trary to  their  intentions.  But  the  fault  lies  in  their  not 
judging  rightly,  what  the  event  would  be  ;  for  the  means 
produced  only  its  proper  and  natural  confequence. 

IT  is  very  probable,  that  in  a  treaty  for  peace,  Britain 
will  contend  for  fome  poft  or  other  in  North-America ; 
perhaps  Canada  or  Halifax,  or  both  :  And  I  infer  this 
from  the  known  deficiency  of  her  politics,  which  have 
ever  yet  made  ufe  of  means,  whofe  natural  event  was 
againft  both  her  intereft  and  her  expectation.  But  the 
queftion  with  her  ought  to  be,  whether  it  is  worth  her 
while  to  hold  them,  and  what  will  be  the  confequence. 

RESPECTING  Canada,  one  or  other  of  the  two  follow- 
ing will  take  place,  viz.  If  Canada  fhould  people,  it  will 
revolt;  and  if  it  do  not  people,  it  will  not  be  worth  the 
expence  of  holding.  And  the  fame  may  be  faid  of  Hali- 
fax, and  the  country  round  it.  But  Canada  never  will 
people ;  neither  is  there  any  occafion  for  contrivances  on 
one  fide  or  the  other,  for  nature  alone  will  do  the  whole. 

BRITAIN  may  put  herfelf  to  great  expences  in  fending 
fettlers  to  Canada  ;  but  the  descendants  of  thofe  fettlers 
will  be  Americans,  as  other  defendants  have  been  before 
them.  They  will  look  round  and  fee  the  neighbouring 
States  fovereign  and  free,  refpe&ed  abroad  and  trading  at 
large  with  the  world  ;  and  the  natural  love  of  liberty,  the 
advantages  of. commerce,  the  bleffings  of  independence 
and  of  a  happier  climate,  and  a  richer  foil,  will  draw  them 
fouthward,  and  the  effect:  will  be  that  Britain  will  fuftain 
the  expence,  and  America  reap  the  advantage. 

ONE  would  think  that  the  experience  which  Britain 
has  had  of  America,  would  entirely  ficken  her  of  all 
thoughts  of  continental  colonization  ;  ^and  any  part  which, 
fhe  might  retain,  will  only  become  to  her  a  field  of jea- 
loufy  and  thorns,  of  debate  and  contention,  for  ever 
ftruggling  for  privileges,  and  meditating  revolt.  She  may 
form  new  fettlements,  but  they  will  be  for  us ;  they  will 
become  part  of  the  United  States  of  America;  and  that 
againft  all  her  contrivances  to  prevent  it,  or  without  any 
endeavours  of  ours  to  promote  it.  In  the  firft  place  (he 

cannot 


[     73     ] 

cannot  draw  from  them  a  revenue,  until  they  are  able 
to  pay  one,  and  when  they  are  fo,  they  will  be  above  fub- 
jediion.  Men  foon  become  attached  to  the  foil  they  live 
upon,  and  incorporated  with  the  profperity  of  the  place; 
and  it  fignifies  but  little  what  opinions  they  come  over 
with,  for  time,  intereft,  and  new  connections  will  render 
them  obfolete,  and  the  next  generation  know  nothing  of 
them. 

WERE  Britain  truly  wife  fhe  would  lay  hold  of  the 
prefent  opportunity  to  difentangle  herfelf  from  all  conti- 
nental embaraffrnents  in  North-America,  and  that  not 
only  to  avoid  future  broils  and  troubles,  but  to  fave  ex- 
pences.  For  to  fpeak  explicitly  on  the  matter,  I  would 
not,  were  I  an  European  power,  have  Canada,  under  the 
conditions  chat  Britain  muft  retain  it,  could  it  be  given 
to  me.  It  is  one  of  thofe  kind  of  dominions  that  is, 
and  ever  will  be,  a  conftant  charge  upon  any  foreign 
holder. 

As  to  Halifax,  it  will  become  ufelefs  to  England  after 
the  prefent  war,  and  the  lofs  of  the  United  States.  A 
harbour,  when  the  dominion  is  gone,  for  the  purpofe  of 
which  only  it  was  wanted,  can  be  attended  only  with  ex- 
pence.  There  are,  I  doubt  not,  thoufands  of  people  in 
England,  who  fuppofe,  that  thofe  places  are  a  profit  to 
the  nation,  whereas  they  are  directly  the  contrary,  and 
inftead  of  producing  any  revenue,  a  confiderable  part  of 
the  revenue  of  England  is  annually  drawn  off,  to  fupport 
the  expence  of  holding  them. 

GIBRALTAR  is  another  inftance  of  national  ill  policy. 
A  poft  which  in  time  of  peace  is  not  wanted,  and  in  time 
of  war  is  of  no  ufe,  muft  at  all  times  be  ufelefs.  Inftead 
of  affording  protection  to  a  navy,  it  requires  the  aid  of 
one  to  maintain  it.  And  to  fuppofe  that  Gibraltar  com- 
mands the  Mediterranean,  or  the  pafs  into  it,  or  the  trade 
of  it,  is  to  fuppofe  a  detected  falfhood  ;  becaufe  though 
Britain  holds  the  poft,  {he  has  loft  the  other  three,  an£ 
every  benefit  fhe  expe<5ted  from  it.  And  to  fay  that  aJf 
this  happens  becaufe  it  is  befieged  by  land  and  water, 
is  to  fay  nothing,  for  this  will  always  be  the  cafe  in 
time  of  war,  while  France  and  Spain  keep  up  fuperior 
fleets,  and  Britain  holds  the  place.— -So  that,  though  as 
an  impenetrable  inacceffible  rock  it  may  be  held  by  the 
one,  it  is  always  in  the  power  of  the  other  to  render  it 
ufelefs  and  exceflively  chargeable. 

K  2  I  ihouM 


[     74     ] 

I  mould  fuppofe  that  one  of  the  principal  obje&s  of 
Spain  in  befieging  it,  is  to  {how  to  Britain,  that  though 
{he  may  not  take  it,  (he  can  command  it,  that  is,  {he  can 
fliut  it  up,  and  prevent  its  being  ufed  as  a  harbour,  though 
not  a  garrifbn.— -But  the  fhort  way  to  reduce  Gibraltar, 
is,  to  attack  the  Britifh  fleet ;  for  Gibraltar  is  as  dependent 
on  a  fleet  for  fupport,  as  a  bird  is  on  its  wing  for  food, 
and  when  wounded  there  it  ftarves. 

There  is  another  circumftance  which  the  people  of 
England  have  not  only  not  attended  to,  but  feem  to  be 
utterly  ignorant  of,  and  that  is,  the  difference  between 
permanent  power,  and  accidental  power,  confidered  in  a 
national  fenfe. 

By  permanent  power,  I  mean,  a  natural  inherent  and 
perpetual  ability  in  a  nation,  which  though  always  in 
being,  may  not  be  always  in  action,  or  not  always  ad- 
vantageoufly  directed  ;  and  by  accidental  power,  I  mean, 
a  fortunate  or  accidental  difpofition  or  exercife  of  national 
ftrength,  in  whole  or  in  part. 

THERJ;  undoubtedly  was  a  time  when  any  one  Euro- 
pean nation,  with  only  eight  or  ten  (hips  of  war,  equal  to 
the  prefent  {hips  of  the  1  ine,  could  have  carried  terror  to  all 
others,  who  had  not  began  to  build  a  navy,  however  great 
their  natural  ability  might  be  for  that  purpofe  :  But  this 
can  be  confidered  only  as  accidental,  and  not  as  a  ftandard 
to  compare  permanent  power  by,  and  could  laft  no  longer 
than  until  thofe  powers  built  as  many  or  more  {hips  than 
the  former.  After  this  a  larger  fleet  was  neceffary,  in 
order  to  be  fuperior ;  and  a  ftill  larger  would  again 
fuperfede  it.  And  thus  mankind  have  gone  on  building 
fleet  upon  fleet,  as  occafion  or  fituation  dictated.  And 
this  reduces  it  to  an  original  queftion,  which  is:  Which 
power  can  build  and  man  the  largeft  number  of  {hips  ? 
The  natural  anfwer  to  which,  is,  That  power  which  has 
the  largeft  revenue  and  the  greateft  number  of  inhabitants, 
provided  its  fituation  of  coaft  affords  fufficient  conve- 
niencies. 

FRANCE  beins;  a  nation  on  the  continent  of  Europe, 
and  i>ritain  an  ifland  in  its  neighbourhood,  each  of  them 
derived  different  ideas  from  their  different  fituations.  The 
inhabitants  of  Britain  could  carry  on  no  foreign  trade, 
nor  ftir  from  the  fpot  they  dwelt  upon,  without  the  af- 
fiftance  of  {hipping ;  but  this  was  not  the  cafe  with 
France.  The  idea  therefore  of  a  navy  did  not  arife  to 

France 


[    75    ] 

France  from  the  fame  original  and  immediate  neceflity 
which  produced  it  to  England.  But  the  queftion  is,  that 
when  both  of  them  turn  their  attention,  and  employ  their 
revenues  the  fame  way,  which  can  be  fuperior  ? 

THE  annual  revenue  of  France  is  nearly  double  that  of 
England,  and  her  number  of  inhabitants  more  than  twice 
as  many.  Each  of  them  has  the  fame  length  of  coaft  on 
the  channel,  befides  which,  France  has  feveral  hundred 
miles  extent  on  the  bay  of  Hifcay,  and  an  opening  on 
the  Mediterranean  :  And  every  day  proves  that  practice 
and  exercife  make  failors  as  well  as  foldiers  in  one  country 
as  well  as  another. 

IF  then  Britain  can  maintain  an  hundred  (hips  of  the 
Jine,  France  can  as  well  fupport  an  hundred  and  fifty, 
becaufe  her  revenues  and  her  population  are  as  equal  to 
the  one,  as  thole  of  England  are  to  the  other.  And  the 
only  reafon  why  (he  has  not  done  it,  is  becaufe  fhe  has 
not  till  very  lately  attented  to  it.  But  when  fhe  fees,  as 
fhe  now  fees,  that  a  navy  is  the  firft  engine  of  power,  fhe 
can  eafily  accomplifh  it. 

ENGLAND  very  falfely,  and  ruinouflyfor  herfelf,  infer, 
that  becaufe  fhe  had  the  advantage  of  France,  while 
France  had  the  fmaller  navy,  that  for  that  reafon  it  is  al- 
ways to  be  fo.  Whereas  it  may  be  clearly  feen,  that  the 
flrength  of  France  has  never  yet  been  tried  on  a  navy,  and 
that  The  is  able  to  be  as  fuperior  to  England  in  the  extent 
of  a  navy,  as  fhe  is  in  the  extent  of  her  revenues  and  her 
population.  Arid  England  may  lament  the  day,  when,  by 
her  mfolence  and  injuftice,  fhe  provoked  in  France  a  ma- 
ritime difpofition. 

IT  is  in  the  power  of  the  combined  fleets  to  conquer 
every  ifland  in  the  Weft-Indies,  and  reduce  all  the  Britifh 
navy  in  thofe  places.  For  were  France  and  Spain  to  fend 
their  whole  naval  force  in  Europe  to  thofe  iflands,  it 
would  not  be  in  the  power  of  Britain  to  follow  them  with 
an  equal  force.  She  would  flill  be  twenty  or  thirty  fhips 
inferior,  were  fhe  to  fend  every  veflel  fhe  had,  and  in  the 
mean  time  all  the  foreign  trade  of  England  would  lay 
expofed  to  the  Dutch. 

IT  is  a  maxim,  which,  I  am  perfuaded,  will  ever  hold 
good,  and  more  efpecially  in  naval  operations,  that  a 
great  power  ought  never  to  move  in  detachments,  if  it  can 
poffibly  be  avoided.  But  to  go  with  its  whole  force  to 
fome  important  object:,  the  reduction  of  which  fhall  have 


a  decifive  effect  upon  the  war.  Had  the  whole  of  the 
French  and  Spanifh  fleets  in  Europe  come  laft  fpring  to 
the  Weft-Indiec,  every  ifland  had  been  their  own,  Rod- 
ivy  their  prifoner,  and  his  fleet  their  prize.  From  the 
United  States  the  combined  fleets  can  be  fupplied  with 
provifions,  without  the  neceffity  of  drawing  them  from 
Europe,  which  is  not  the  cafe  with  England. 

ACCIDENT  has  thrown  fome  advantages  in  the  way  of 
England,  which,  from  the  inferiority  of  her  navy,  {he 
had  not  a  right  to  expect.  For  though  {he  has  been 
obliged  to  fly  before  the  combined  fleets,  yet  Rodney  has 
twice  had  the  fortune  to  fall  in  with  detached  fquadrons, 
to  which  he  was  fuperior  in  numbers  :  The  firft  off  Cape 
St.  Vincent,  where  he  had  nearly  two  to  one,  and  the 
other  in  the  Weft-Indies,  where  he  had  a  majority  of  fix 
fhips.  Victories  of  this  kind  almoft  produce  themfelves. 
They  are  won  without  honor,  and  fuffered  without  dif^» 
grace  :  And  are  afcribable  to  the  chance  of  meeting,  not 
to  the  fuperiority  of  fighting.  For  the  fame  Admiral, 
under  whom  they  were  obtained,  was  unable,  in  three 
former  engagements,  to  make  the  lead  impreffion  on  a 
fleet  confuting  of  an  equal  number  of  (hips  with  his  own, 
and  compounded  for  the  events  by  declining  the  actions.* 

To  conclude,  if  it  may  be  faid  that  Britain  has 
numerous  enemies,  it  likewife  proves  that  fhe  has  given- 
numerous  offences.  Infolence  is  fure  to  provoke  hatred^ 
whether  in  a  nation  or  an  individual.  The  want  of  man- 
ners in  the  Britim  Court  may  be  feen  even  in  ks  birth- 
days and  new-years  Odes*  which  are  calculated  to  infatuate 
the  vulgar,  and  difguft  the  man  of  refinement :  And  her 
former  overbearing  rudencfs,  and  infufFerable  injuftice  on 
the  feas,  have  made  every  Commercial  nation  her  foe.  Her 
fleets  were  employed  as  engines  of  prey ;  and  acted  on  the 
furface  of  the  deep  the  character  which  the  {hark  <does 

beneath  it. On  the  other  hand,  the  Combined  Powers 

-are  taking  a  popular  part,  and  will  render  their  reputa- 
tion immortal,  by  eftabliftiing  the  perfect  freedom  of  the 
ocean,  to  which  all  countries  have  a  right,  and  are  inter- 
efted  in  accomplishing.  The  fea  is  th;  world's  highway  ; 
and  he  who  arrogates  a  prerogative  over  it,  tranfgrefles 

~the 

*See  the  accounts,  either  EngUJh  or  French,  of  three  aftiom 
in  the  Weft-Indies,  between  Count  de  Guichen  and  Admiral 
Rodney^  in  1780. 


[    77    1 

the  right,  and  juftly  brings  on  himfelf  the  chaftifement, 
of  nations. 

PERHAPS  it  might  be  of  fome  fervice  to  the  future 
tranquility  of  mankind,  were  an  article  introduced  into 
the  next  general  peace,  that  no  one  nation  fhould,  in  time 
of  peace,  exceed  a  certain  number  of  (hips  of  war.  Some- 
thing of  this  kind  feems  neceflary  ;  for  according  to  the 
prefent  fafhion,  half  the  world  will  get  upon  the  water, 
and  there  appears  no  end  to  the  extent  to  which  navies 
may  be  carried.  Another  reafon  is,  that  navies  add  no- 
thing to  the  manners  or  morals  of  a  people.  The  fequef- 
tered  life  which  attends  the  fervice,  prevents  the  oppor- 
tunities of  fociety,  and  is  too  apt  to  occafion  a  coarfenefs 
of  ideas  and  language,  and  that  more  in  fhips  of  war  than 
in  commercial  employ;  becaufe  in  the  latter  they  mix  more 
with  the  world,  and  are  nearer  related  to  it.  I  mention 
this  remark  as  a  general  one ;  and  not  applied  to  any  one 
country  more  than  to  another. 

BRITAIN  has  now  had  the  trial  of  above  feven  years, 
with  an  expence  of  nearly  an  hundred  million  pounds 
fterling  ;  and  every  month  in  which  fhe  delays  to  conclude 
a  peace,  cofts  her  another  million  fterling,  over  and  above 
her  ordinary  expences  of  government,  which  are  a  million 
more;  fo  that  her  total  monthly  expence  is  two  million 
pounds  fterling,  which  is  equal  to  the  whole  yearly  ex- 
pence  of  America,  all  charges  included.  Judge  then  who 
is  beft  able  to  continue  it. 

SHE  has  likewife  many  atonements  to  make  to  an  in- 
jured world,  as  well  in  one  quarter  as  another.  And  in- 
ftead  of  purfuing  that.temper  of  arrogance,  which  ferves 
only  to  (ink  her  in  the  efteem,  and  entail  on  her  thediflike, 
of  all  nations,  {he  would  do  well  to  reform  her  manners, 
retrench  her  expences,  live  peaceably  with  her  neighbours, 
and  think  of  war  no  more. 

Philadelphia,  Auguft  21,  1782. 


ERRATA. 

Page  47,  line  15,  for  principals  read  principles 
Page  60,  line  17,  for  1779  read  1778. 


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